“It’s the Other way around that you get to the right”. The principle of reversibility in Grande Sertão

Veredas, a reading by Antonio Candido

Abstract

This article discusses a possibility of conceptualizing the logic that commands and structures Grande Sertão: Veredas (1956), by Guimarães Rosa. Characterized by Antonio Candido as “the fundamental principle of reversibility”, this logic would be responsible for the complex and sinuous set of structures, themes and languages on which the novel’s tripod is based: the earth, man and conflict. In the chaotic sertão of Riobaldo’s narrative, reversibility seems to be the only principle of relative constancy and order; among the various and unexpected effects, one of its most evident traits is to make the main antithetical pairs of the work - law and crime, good and evil, fair and unfair, etc. – almost impossible of absolute distinctions and judgments. In addition to an important critical finding that will serve as inspiration for many other interpretations of the novel, the principle of reversibility offers a plausible key to understanding the unstable and violent Brazilian socio-historical reality.