Sociology and literature

Abstract

The purpose is to discuss how Os sertões has been incorporated, by the critics, as literary work and how, after that, the novel Grande sertão: veredas started to be read as an essay. In order to achieve that, there is the examination, from one side, of several studies, on how the fi rst has been consecrated as composite work belonging, at the same time, to the literature, sociology and science fi elds, what has come as currency and unquestionable standard, surviving for over a century. On the other hand, there is the investigation of how the narrative of Rosa started to be seen, by a determined share of the critics, as essay or study of the power relationships in Brazil. It is this non-distinction, this paradox, between sociology and literature, science and fi ction, that we propose to investigate and put into matter, searching for comprehension in this gender mixture.