'Inferno verde': Nature in the Construction of the Brazilian Nation. Issue 2 (7th February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Trevathan, John
• Is Part Of: Bulletin of Spanish studies. Volume 93:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 297
• Page End: 314
• Publication Date: 2016-02-07
• Subjects: ecocriticism -- Transamazon -- Iracema -- Brazil -- deforestation -- environmentalism; Spanish philology -- Periodicals; Portuguese philology -- Periodicals; Spanish literature -- Periodicals; Portuguese literature -- Periodicals; Spain -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Latin America -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Portugal -- Civilization -- Periodicals; 860.5
• DOI: 10.1080/14753820.2015.1068014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1475-3820

Abstract

Abstract: The novela de la selva has been and remains a dominant genre of nature writing throughout Iberoamerica. Its stylization and recuperation of this natural space move ambivalently from heaven to hell. Alberto Rangel captures this sentiment perfectly with his phrase 'inferno verde', which conveys this sentiment of both wonder and terror. Both fictional accounts and ecological tracts deploy this ambivalence as a technique that both excludes those people, animals and objects that do not pertain to a 'nature' and degrades those who supposedly belong there. It has also played a part in the national projects of development and continues to play a part in current environmental debates in Brazil. This article critiques the space of the selva as a national signifier by looking at José de Alencar's Iracema (1865) and Jorge Bodansky's and Orlando Senna's Iracema, uma transa amazônica (1974). The film offers a re-reading and denaturalization of what Alencar naturalizes. I contend that the result is a new way of reading into the environmental debates currently underway in Brazil.