ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of the state of Brazilian literary criticism, built on the foundations of Antonio Candido's paradigmatic definition of Brazilian literature. It addresses as a turning point wherein the aforementioned Brazilian criticism becomes destabilised by Guimaraes Rosa's shift away from a "parental genealogy" and the premise of human centrality. The chapter shows that Brazilian literary criticism overcome its impasse by assimilating itself to the practice of certain ethnography. Candido is an eminent theoretician and critic, and any scholar working in Brazilian literature has to reckon with his influence. The encounter that makes The Falling Sky possible is just one in a vast network of encounters taking place in the Amazon, an area that defies attempt at national delimitation. The chapter presents an epilogue that may help advocate for a certain fluidity among disciplines in a world evermore complex and interesting, because less familiar.
