Mapping the Amazon: Literary Geography after the Rubber Boom

Mapping the Amazon explores the political and ecological consequences of charting the Amazon River basin in narrative fiction by examining how widely read novels from twentieth-century South America attempted to map the region for readers. The authors construct landscapes marked by the first large-scale exploitation of Amazonian biodiversity, and Smith places the counter-discursive impulses of each novel in dialogue with various modernizing projects.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 02 April 2024
Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Mapping the Amazon delves into the profound political and ecological implications of charting the Amazon River basin through narrative fiction. This captivating exploration examines how widely read novels from twentieth-century South America sought to map the vast and enigmatic region for their readers. Authors like José Eustasio Rivera, Rómulo Gallegos, Mario Vargas Llosa, César Calvo, Márcio Souza, and Mário de Andrade embarked on personal journeys to the Amazonian regions of their respective countries, encountering firsthand the devastating impact of extractivism on the forest. In their novels, these authors bravely challenged the dominant spatial logic of exploitation, filling their works with geographic, human, and ecological realities that were often omitted from official accounts of the region.

While the plots of these novels unfold after the peak of the Amazon rubber boom (1850–1920), the authors skillfully construct landscapes that bear the imprint of that initial large-scale exploitation of Amazonian biodiversity. The material practices of rubber extraction resurface in the stories recounting the removal of other plants, seeds, and minerals from the forest, as well as its conversion into farmland. Smith adeptly places the counter-discursive impulses of each novel in dialogue with various modernizing projects that carve Amazonia into cultural and economic spaces. These projects include border commissions, extractive infrastructure, school geography manuals, Indigenous education programs, and touristic propaganda.

However, it is important to note that even the "novel maps" studied in Mapping the Amazon possess blind spots. The book recognizes the legacy of such unintentional omissions, raising important questions about the ongoing impact of these oversights on the region and its inhabitants. By examining the intersection of narrative fiction, extractivism, and modernizing projects, Mapping the Amazon offers a thought-provoking exploration of the complex web of political, ecological, and cultural forces that shape the Amazon River basin. This insightful work sheds light on the ways in which literature can serve as a powerful tool for challenging dominant narratives and promoting a more inclusive and sustainable understanding of one of the world's most remarkable and fragile ecosystems.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781802075342