LATI 356 - Amazonian Narratives

Since the sixteenth century, the Amazon rainforest has been a source of wonderment, greed, and-in the past decades- concern. Yet as metaphors such as “El Dorado”, the “Green Hell” or the “Lungs of the Earth” suggest, the Amazon is as much a discursive formation as a geographical space. This course offers an introduction to the cultural representations of the Amazon rainforest. From Indigenous myths to contemporary films and first-person testimonios, students will analyze how the Amazon has been imagined and depicted by a range of actors-Indigenous activists, scientists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs alike. Through a variety of texts, disciplines, and voices, students will examine how the Amazon has been narrated as a place of “origin”, “wealth”, and “resistance”. While students will gain a general understanding of Amazonian culture, a central objective of the course is to discuss how Indigenous peoples are drawing on ancestral knowledge to situate themselves as global political actors and resist environmental degradation. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 307 or consent of the instructor. Alternate years (4 Credits)