The Cultural Space of Amazonia: Encounter – Exchange – Controversy

The Cultural Space of Amazonia: Encounter – Exchange – Controversy

DRV Summer School at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 23-26 July 2024

Amazonia as a cultural space has received little attention in European literature and culture studies. However, its relevance to research is obvious: its territory extends across Brazil and several Hispano-American countries, which are at the same time home to numerous indigenous communities. In view of its critical importance for the future of climate and species conservation, the region is already at the heart of ecological debates, which has also made it the subject of new theoretical approaches. Since the early colonial period, the tropical rainforest, the Amazon River and its inhabitants have served as a source of imagery for various forms of literary expression.

We understand Amazonia as a transnational and transcultural space of dialogue in which texts have emerged that range from the Chronicles and national foundational fictions to forms of identity-building and ecocritical self-understanding in opposition to neo-colonial exploitation. As part of the Summer School of the German Romance Studies Association (DRV), which will take place from 23 to 26 July 2024 at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, we want to examine aspects of encounter, exchange and controversy in the discursive production and narrative modelling of Amazonia from a diachronic perspective.

Our work will be based in particular on travelogues, ethnological studies and fictional texts. Fray Gaspar de Carvajal’s Relación del nuevo descubrimiento del famoso río grande (ca. 1542), Inglês de Souza’s Contos amazônicos (1893), Jose Eustasio Rivera’s La vorágine (1924) and Claude Lévi-Strauss’ Tristes tropiques (1955) are just some of the texts that could be considered as objects of study. Who is communicating here (with whom) and for which further purpose? What rhetorical means and strategies do the speakers use and what role do t(r)opologies, imaginaries and narrative traditions specific to natural spaces play? What narrative function is assigned to the political, climatic, geographical and cultural characteristics of Amazonia in the appropriation, negotiation and reclamation of discursive power? What processes of identity-building and alteration result from this and what do these dynamics mean for a transnational and transcultural Amazonia – from the early modern period to the present day? These are questions that we would like to discuss and, if possible, answer in the form of individual presentations, workshops and discussions.

The numerous texts on Amazonia reveal the jungle not only as a polyphonic space, but also as one that has itself become a topos. The region has often become the subject of Eurocentric descriptions. Various literary codices flow together and stylise Amazonia as a salutary mirror of the western world. The voices of indigenous peoples are receiving increasing attention thanks to authors such as Eliane Potiguara and Márcia Wayna Kambeba. Fittingly, recent literary representations, films and media reports problematise extractivist logics and make the Amazon an exemplary subject of ecocritical theory formation. Rio acima (2016), the debut novel by Brazilian anthropologist Pedro Cesarino, comes to mind. However, the focus on the region in transnational and transcultural discourses goes far beyond the climatological interest in protecting the Amazon.

Romance studies appear to us to be particularly suitable for researching the cultural, linguistic and geopoetic interdependencies that characterise literature about the region. Of course, it is important to consider the limits of this discipline in view of the more than 300 indigenous languages spoken in Amazonia and, if possible, to make it conceptually fruitful. To date, a systematic and comprehensive approach to the cultural expressions of this habitat has been lacking. We want to initiate a broad discourse on Amazonia and in this way make a contribution to the further development of Romance literary and cultural studies.

The summer school is aimed at scholars who are in one of the three common qualification phases (master’s students, doctorate, postdoc/habilitation) and who are specialising in Francophone, Hispanic or Lusophone literary or cultural studies. Interested persons from neighbouring disciplines such as Anthropology, Archaeology, Ethnology and History are also welcome. Proposals in English, French, Portuguese or Spanish (250-400 words, plus biographical details) should be sent to Gesine Brede (g.brede@em.uni-frankfurt.de) and Timo Kehren (tikehren@uni-mainz.de) by 19th May 2024. Responses will be sent out two weeks after the deadline. Thanks to the financial support of the German Romance Studies Association, the costs for accommodation and meals can be covered. There are no participation fees.

Keynotes:

Carla Jaimes Betancourt (Bonn): “Archaeology, Anthropology and Heritage in the Amazon”

Stephan Leopold (Mainz): “The Thicket of the Amazon and the Wrong Track of the European Order of Signs: Alejo Carpentier, Los pasos perdidos”

Romana Radlwimmer (Frankfurt): “Between Amazons and the Amazon: Imperial Fantasies in Early Modern Lusophone and Hispanic Texts”

Workshops:

Gesine Brede (Frankfurt): “Ecocriticism and Nature Writing”

Timo Kehren (Mainz): “Transculturality and Transnationalism”

Laura Gagliardi (Cologne): “The Literary Amazon of Mário de Andrade: Macunaíma and O turista aprendiz”

Sergej Gordon (Eichstätt-Ingolstadt): “From Inventorisation to Extractivism: Cristóbal de Acuña’s Nuevo descubrimiento and José Eustasio Rivera’s La vorágine”