Cinthya Torres
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781786941831
- eISBN:
- 9781789623598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941831.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This essay explores the political and discursive mechanisms Brazilian writer Da Cunha employs to build a historical past for Brazil in the Amazon, while simultaneously discrediting Bolivia and Peru’s ...
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This essay explores the political and discursive mechanisms Brazilian writer Da Cunha employs to build a historical past for Brazil in the Amazon, while simultaneously discrediting Bolivia and Peru’s territorial demands on the Acre region in Amazonia. Building his argument on boundary-making history, cartographical data, and nationalistic feelings, Torres argues that Da Cunha crafts a compelling case for Brazil’s rightful purchase of Acre and expansion of its frontiers in two ways. Firstly, Da Cunha identifies the value of the Amazon, whether as a political, economic, or even symbolic capital that can be utilized to lay the grounds for a diplomatic defense, and therefore lawfulness of their territorial claims. Secondly, Torres goes on to argue that Da Cunha is aware of the decisive nature of his mission for the mapping of a terrain visited only by local Indians and Peruvian rubber tappers. This consciousness leads him to compose a history for Brazil in the Amazon with the intention of nationalizing the territory; in other words, to turn an abstract and alien place into one concrete narrative in which the uprooted nation is reunited and homogenized under a common and shared identity.Less
This essay explores the political and discursive mechanisms Brazilian writer Da Cunha employs to build a historical past for Brazil in the Amazon, while simultaneously discrediting Bolivia and Peru’s territorial demands on the Acre region in Amazonia. Building his argument on boundary-making history, cartographical data, and nationalistic feelings, Torres argues that Da Cunha crafts a compelling case for Brazil’s rightful purchase of Acre and expansion of its frontiers in two ways. Firstly, Da Cunha identifies the value of the Amazon, whether as a political, economic, or even symbolic capital that can be utilized to lay the grounds for a diplomatic defense, and therefore lawfulness of their territorial claims. Secondly, Torres goes on to argue that Da Cunha is aware of the decisive nature of his mission for the mapping of a terrain visited only by local Indians and Peruvian rubber tappers. This consciousness leads him to compose a history for Brazil in the Amazon with the intention of nationalizing the territory; in other words, to turn an abstract and alien place into one concrete narrative in which the uprooted nation is reunited and homogenized under a common and shared identity.
André Botelho and Nísia Trindade Lima
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781786941831
- eISBN:
- 9781789623598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941831.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This article studies the region’s sanitary conditions as portrayed in scientist Carlos Chagas’ account as a way to better understand writer Mário de Andrade’s 1927 chronicles, published posthumously ...
More
This article studies the region’s sanitary conditions as portrayed in scientist Carlos Chagas’ account as a way to better understand writer Mário de Andrade’s 1927 chronicles, published posthumously as O turista aprendiz (The Apprentice Tourist), in which -quite originally- he understands malaria as a vehicle for creativity. The authors read Chagas’ medical perspective as a way of better approaching the kind of operations that Mário de Andrade performs, and which undermine the discourse of science that sees malaria as an endemic problem to be solved. The authors distinguish the way in which Mário and Brazilian modernismo approached the Amazon from previous canonical descriptions, mainly the highly influential one of Euclides da Cunha. In his playful descriptions of the region and its inhabitants, Mário de Andrade sees malaria as a different form of relating to space and knowledge, as a state of mind prone to contemplation and productive immobility.Less
This article studies the region’s sanitary conditions as portrayed in scientist Carlos Chagas’ account as a way to better understand writer Mário de Andrade’s 1927 chronicles, published posthumously as O turista aprendiz (The Apprentice Tourist), in which -quite originally- he understands malaria as a vehicle for creativity. The authors read Chagas’ medical perspective as a way of better approaching the kind of operations that Mário de Andrade performs, and which undermine the discourse of science that sees malaria as an endemic problem to be solved. The authors distinguish the way in which Mário and Brazilian modernismo approached the Amazon from previous canonical descriptions, mainly the highly influential one of Euclides da Cunha. In his playful descriptions of the region and its inhabitants, Mário de Andrade sees malaria as a different form of relating to space and knowledge, as a state of mind prone to contemplation and productive immobility.
