“A virtude, uma quase impiedade”: inscrição de Euclydes da Cunha em Jorge Luis Borges

Abstract

The central hypothesis of this work is that the Borgiano tale “Tres versiones de Judas” (1944) is, among other things, an elliptical—and tragic—reading of Euclydes Da Cunha and through him, of the Republic of Brazil; an inscription that allows us to think of the civilizing ethos, not as a conjuration of civil war, but as its continuation and perpetuation. The purpose will thus be to speculate on how Borges condenses (and conjures) Euclydes Da Cunha into the figure of Judas, that is, on how he makes this inscription a paradigm, which constructs and renders intelligible a highly problematic historical context.