L'invention de l'Amazonie ; trois récits

Description

In December 1904, Euclides da Cunha (1866-1909), one of the key authors of 20th-century Brazilian literature, left Rio de Janeiro for Manaus to begin a reconnaissance mission of the western Amazon basin. The expedition, which took him to the border region with Peru, pushed him to the brink of madness, but it also allowed him to familiarise himself with the last dark corner of Brazil. His discovery of Ecuadorian nature and the populations living on the banks of the rivers shook him, and his vision of the drama unfolding there - the enslavement of rubber workers, the silent destruction of the Indians - led him to plan to write, after his masterpiece Hautes Terres, devoted to the war of Canudos, a "second vengeful book ". However, his great Amazonian narrative (which he gave the working title Un paradis perdu) would never see the light of day: Euclides da Cunha died four years after his trip, shot dead in August 1909 at his home in Rio by his wife's lover. Nevertheless, everything suggests that the text was written with a fervour that was in no way inferior to that which underpinned his previous plea: although his sketches and preparatory notes have disappeared, the twenty or so articles and stories that remain bear witness to his ambition and the beauty of his prose. The Invention of the Amazon consists of three of these stories, all taken from the collection À margem da história ('On the Margins of History', unpublished in English), which the author himself was able to organise. They describe the vertigo that prevents us from seeing the Amazon, the triumphs and miseries that life in limbo can bring, and the proximity between creation and destruction. With his eye for future ruins, da Cunha not only provides a glimpse of modernity, but also offers a striking view of the region, a reflection that remains relevant to this day.