Abstract

SENA, Custódia Selma. Uma narrativa mítica do sertão. Avá [online]. 2010, n.17, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1851-1694.

Brazilian social imagination and our own experience of Brazilianism have been built up, at least since the nineteenth century, around the image and the feeling that Brazil is a dual country. Initially formulated as an opposition between civilization and savageness, this duality has constantly been unfolded in other ones, such as civilized/primitive, modern/traditional, littoral/sertão etc. (Portuguese term for backcountry, backland, or hinterland). In this article, we discuss the opposition littoral/sertão proposing to assume the sertão as a character in the myth that narrates the conquest of civilization by the Brazilian nation.

Keywords : Myth; Nation; Sertão.