Rainforest: A Literary Journey

Catalog description

This course explores Las narrativas de la selva, a set of Latin American texts written during the 20th century that deal with stories of failure by modern, urban, male subjects who escape the city to fulfill in the Amazon rainforest their dreams of freedom, self-realization, and financial independence. Over time, the rainforest has been represented in a variety of forms: from the image of a paradise to that of an inferno, to that of a benevolent shelter. Throughout those representations, Latin American writers have brought into question notions of national identity, sovereignty, economic development, care for the environment, among others. The primary goal of this course is to introduce students to referential and theoretical texts about Latin American narrativas de la selva. Through them, students will reflect on the following questions: What are the most recurrent representations of the rainforest in this narrative production? What environmental problems are problematized in these texts? What role do the indigenous people play in these narratives? What kind of relationships between human communities and the rainforest are represented in these stories?