Abstract

MURARI, Luciana. A jungle of adventures and mysteries: expeditions to the Amazon region in Brazilian literature in the 1920s and 1930s. Hist. Soc. [online]. 2017, n.33, pp.111-133. ISSN 0121-8417.  https://doi.org/10.15446/hys.n33.61698.

This paper analyses five novels published in Brazil from 1925 to 1938, having in common the narration of fictional expeditions to the Amazon region. Aiming to understand its representation, we try to figure out how elites conceived its possibilities of wealth production, its integration into Brazilian society and its cultural and environmental grounds. Even taking into account the conceptual and political-ideological differences among these novels, we observed that the Amazon region was still considered as a special, unknown reality, like a scarcely exploited treasure where secrets were hidden and fantasies, horrors and wonders could be imagined. In conclusion, the modernization pleas of Brazilian nation embodied Amazonian life, and the predatory exploitation of the environment was still a well-accepted means to promote material prosperity.

Keywords : Brazilian cultural history; Amazon; Brazilian literature; Brazilian environmental history (author).

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