This article analyses two examples of Brazilian literature, João Guimarães Rosa’s Grande sertão: veredas and João Antônio’s “Abraçado ao meu rancor”. Whereas the first narrates the sertão, “Abraçado ao meu rancor” is entirely dedicated to the metropolis of São Paulo. This article aims to display a series of resemblances between the two pieces that tend to disrupt an old but still active axiom of Brazilian social thought: the dichotomy between the country (sertão) and the city. The analysis begins by building up the distinction between the sertão and the city as it appears in most Brazilian literature and literary criticism. This opposition leads to a series of other constitutive polarities, such as development/underdevelopment, nature/culture, faith/reason. Through a reading of Rosa’s novel and Antônio’s story, this article will then juxtapose the sertão and the city showing how oppositions that have sustained so much of the Brazilian social thought are categories that need to be deconstructed.

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