« The forest is alive »: Re-thinking the Amazon in Brazilian Literature
Oct 30, 2023 — 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Carmen Fullin and Meg Stalcup are delighted to invite you to the public conferences for AABrO (Academe & Arts of Brazil at the University of Ottawa), a new association for Brazilian Studies at the University of Ottawa
"Abro" means "I open" in Portuguese, and our playful name is an invitation to join us in the opening of a series of scholarly and artistic events in this academic year.
Talk by Patricia Magazoni Gonçalves, University of Ottawa
Patricia Magazoni Gonçalves holds a PhD from the English Department at the University of Ottawa, where she developed the thesis Clearcut: Reading the Forest in Canadian and Brazilian Literatures. Integrating ecocriticism and postcolonial theory, her research examined representations of the forest in Canadian and Brazilian literature and culture in order to discuss issues of deforestation in both countries. Patricia also holds an MA in Canadian Literature from the University of Ottawa and an MA in Literary Studies from the São Paulo State University (UNESP), Brazil.
What is the forest? What does it mean to say we must protect it? This talk will focus on how Brazilian writers have used literary discourse as a tool to denounce the impacts of deforestation in the Amazon and, therefore, call for alternative understandings of the forest that are less anthropocentric and more geared toward reciprocal relationships between humans, non-humans, and nature. By mediating between “real world” issues and aesthetic form, these authors offer a discursive structure for acting upon current environmental, cultural, and economic crises.