A “loucura das multidões”. Crítica e autocrítica em Euclides da Cunha

Abstract

During the period between the publication of the articles written for the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and the writing of Os sertões, Euclides da Cunha radically changes his opinion on the meaning of the Canudos uprising, but at no time, before or after the publication of the book, does he register the reasons for this change of opinion or propose a self-criticism of his previous position. The paper examines this silence, seeking to diagnose it from the theoretical framework provided by the mass psychology adopted in the book, especially that formulated by the psychiatrist Nina Rodrigues. Being used by Euclides to understand the “collective madness” that have allegedly affected the sertanejos, such psychological theory, which characterizes this collective disease as contagious, may give clues about the “contamination” of the author of the denouncement against the Republic, explaining, at least in part, his omission in not including himself among the causes of the tragedy.