The Amazon in Latin Am Culture

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This seminar examines Latin American cultural productions about the Amazon River Basin from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. Starting with the “novel of the jungle” that flourished during the rubber boom period all the way to contemporary Indigenous cinema, the course will analyze the different ways in which texts, film and the arts have engaged with the human and non-human diversity of the region. The course will focus on the dynamic interchanges between human beings, animals and plants, and highlight the ways in which non-humans shape human cultural life. We will resort both to Amazonian thought and to the academic field of ecocriticism to discuss how animals and plants leave imprints of themselves in human cultural life, becoming co-creators of human cultural productions about Amazonia. At a time when the Amazon and its peoples are increasingly threatened by extractivist industries that regard the biosphere as a mere resource, this seminar seeks to understand how cultural productions reveal the interdependence of humans and non-humans, and point towards paths for harmonious coexistence between humanity and other living beings.