[Canceled] Amazonian Aesthetics: Colonization, Extractivism, and the Rainforest

Cardenas, Juan Pablo; Cardenas, Juan Pablo

This session explores the representation of Amazonian regions and communities in literature and film, focusing on themes like extractivism, environmental resistance, and Indigenous knowledge. Western narratives often neglect the severe impacts of extractivism—deforestation, illegal mining, and oil extraction—while overlooking Indigenous perspectives and the environmental consequences. When the Amazon is seen solely as a resource for exploitation, the cultural and environmental repercussions are frequently minimized. Recently, Indigenous authors and scholars from the Global South have begun to share their own stories, challenging longstanding colonial and extractivist narratives. We have selected four panelists, each presenting a 15-minute paper to encourage discussion on these vital topics.

From the perspective of animal and plant studies, Juan-Pablo Cárdenas’s “The Ant-ocene: Apocalyptic Ants in Amazonian Narratives” explores the role of ants in Amazonian literature as agents of destruction. The imagery of ants, with their mandibles and tarsal claws sweeping through large swaths of the rainforest, resonates rhizomatically with various Amazonian narratives, where they are often depicted as relentless forces of devastation and creation. From José Eustasio Rivera’s La vorágine (1924) to Carl Stephenson’s Leiningen Versus the Ants (1938), amongst others, these texts illustrate the overpowering nature of ants, representing not only nature’s supremacy but also reflecting humanity’s insatiable desire for Amazonian resources. This extractive impulse feeds into the voracious cycle of global capital. By examining these works through the lenses of ecocritical theory, animal and plant studies, and Amazonian cosmologies, it becomes evident that the Anthropocene reveals itself as an apocalyptic force deeply rooted in the ethos of postcolonial Amazonian history—long before the term was coined in the context of our current environmental predicament.

In “Green Narratives: Decolonizing Peruvian Amazonian Literature,” Miluska Guzman examines Peruvian Amazonian literature from a decolonial and ecocritical perspective. Drawing on Aníbal Quijano’s theory of the coloniality of power, this presentation analyzes three seminal novels: Mal de gente (1943), Paiche (1963), and Las tres mitades de Ino Moxo y otros brujos de la Amazonía (1981) to reveal extractive systems and modes of resistance within these texts. Mal de gente exposes the brutal conditions of the rubber boom, illustrating the coloniality of labor and racialized oppression. Paiche narrates an unsuccessful indigenous resistance against extractivist capitalism, uncovering the persistence of structural inequality. In contrast, Ino Moxo denounces the indiscriminate extraction of natural resources. Thus, it reclaims indigenous knowledge through shamanism, proposing a reciprocal relationship with nature. These green narratives highlight the significance of resisting environmental exploitation and cultural marginalization.

In “Extractivism and Cultural Negotiations in El abrazo de la serpiente”, Jack Martinez Arias analyzes the film El abrazode la serpiente (2015) to examine how extractivism and transculturation, as defined by Ángel Rama, manifest in the story. Set in the Colombian Amazon in the early 20th century, the film portrays the encounter between an indigenous payé and two foreign explorers amid the violence of rubber companies. This clash of cultures shows not only how the foreign culture affects the Indigenous people but also how the Indigenous culture influences the explorers, leading to partial indigenization and a shift in their Western perspectives towards Amazon preservation. The film thus offers new insights into the concept of transculturation.

Anamaria León’s presentation, “Learning Through the Eyes and Ears of More-Than-Human Beings in Andean and Amazonian Texts,” reconsiders the Amazon and Andes as spaces where the land reclaims ecological exploitation. It analyzes the biography of Santos Marka T’ula, The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert, and Morela Maneiro’s Benko Enuuro (Ojos de Hormiga) to show how bodily transformations reveal collective teachings from nature and primordial beings. Anamaría compares various Indigenous communities in these texts by utilizing Viveiros de Castro’s perspectivist anthropological theory and the insights of De la Cadena and Vilaça. This discussion highlights how relationships between humans and more-than-human beings challenge the traditional human-centric perspective in Latin American literature.

This session provides an opportunity to explore the most biodiverse biome on our planet—the Amazon rainforest—through the perspectives of ecocritical and postcolonial theories, as well as Indigenous cosmologies. These frameworks are valuable tools for analyzing the cultural and historical factors behind the ongoing devastation of the biological ecosystem within the Amazon. They also help us understand the aesthetics that have developed to document these anthropogenic phenomena.

359 [Canceled] Amazonian Aesthetics: Colonization, Extractivism, and the Rainforest: Calls for Papers