La serie de Antonio Conselheiro y la rebelión popular de Canudos en la prensa periódica internacional hacia 1897

Abstract

This work aims to link the Canudos war, which occurred in the state of Bahia (Brazil) between 1896 and 1897, with the expansion of the international periodic press, especially telegraphic sources, towards the end of the 19th century. This will be done from an analysis of the figurations under which the figure of Antonio Conselheiro was read and interpreted. The case of the “Brazilian messiah” is paradigmatic to read the operations and the functioning of the mediation network that operated beyond the Brazilian territory, in countries as the USA, Spain, Mexico, Argentina and Chile.Expanding on the famous work of Walnice Nogueira Galvão (1977), I will work with a set of international journalistic textualities that refer to the ways in which the experience of Antonio Conselheiro was configured in two meanings, both as a deviation from Christianity and as a rebellious icon. The objective of this article is to reflect on the ways in which the fame of the religious leader, his death, and theories about the origins of fanaticism in Canudos were interpreted in dialogue with literate critical positions.

Keywords

• Canudos war
• Antonio Conselheiro
• international telegrams
• fanaticism
• 1897