Being “from outside” or being “from inside”: a semantic approach to the meanings of “being northeastern”

Abstract

The construction of meaning(s) of “nordestino”, undoubtedly, goes through the most diverse areas: History, Geography, Politics, and Economy, to name a few. Nevertheless, we understand that, among several areas that have central importance in this construction of meanings, Brazilian Literature had - and has - a prominent role in the construction of meanings of what became commonly known as "being northeastern". Based on this premise, this work aims to discuss, in the light of Semantics, the construction of meanings of "northeastern", from the consideration of two types of literary texts: on the one hand, a text that is constructed from a kind of “outside look” on the Northeast; on the other, literary texts constructed from an “inside look”. Respectively, we will take, in the first case, “Os Sertões”, by Euclides da Cunha; and, in the second, works of northeastern regionalist literature from the so-called Geração de 30, which includes, among others, José Lins do Rego, Rachel de Queiroz, and Graciliano Ramos.