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This dissertation is a meta-critical comparative study of the literary and historiographical models of Brazilian literature: that of Antonio Candido, in his magnum opus Formação de literaturabrasileira, following the Romantic historiographical tradition, saw Brazilian literature as thenational embodiment of what he calls the “Western spirit”, of which Brazilian literature is forcefullya “lesser branch”; and that of Haroldo de Campos, who, in his turn, will reframe Candido’sformative process, in light of the deconstructionist theories of Derrida, Walter Benjamin’sphilosophy of history and Oswald de Andrade’s “antropofagia”. He will then advocate for a contercanonin which the idea of formation is less relevant than that of transformation, based on ruptureinstead of linearity and continuity. In that sense, Campos will then focus on minor figures inCandido’s model, such as the sixteenth century poet Gregório de Matos, the nineteenth centuryRomantic poet Sousândrade. Through a comparative study of these two historiographical models, the dissertation discusses, hence, the aesthetics and the politics of the canon of Brazilian literature.