An Anarchist Rainforest
Cooperation in Ferreira de Castro's A selva
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2170473 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patrícia Vieira (0000-0002-8262-3740, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 215-235 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1356-9325 • E-ISSN: 1469-9575 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13569325.2023.2220657 |
| OpenAlex | W4385349614 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 17 |
In this essay, I read Portuguese writer Ferreira de Castro's Amazonian "novel of the jungle" A Selva (1930) through the lens of the author's lifelong commitment to anarchist ideals and, in particular, to the thinking of Pëtr Kropotkin. I argue that Kropotkin's reflections on collaboration in more-than-human forms of existence and on the role mutual aid will play in an anarchist world to come are key to understanding the political evolution of the novel's protagonist from an elitist believer in monarchy to a proto-anarchist. Working in a rubber collection facility in the final years of the Amazonian rubber boom, A Selva's main character observes the centrality of cooperation and symbiosis both within and across plant and animal species. Mutual aid, in turn, proves decisive for the survival of the destitute migrant rubber tappers that flocked to the Amazon in search of a better life. I contend that, in the novel, the cooperation between more-than-human rainforest beings serves as a blueprint for a more equitable human polity
Amazon rainforest · Biology · Environmental ethics · Geography · Rainforest · Anarchism and Radical Politics · Digital Games and Media · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy · Ecology · Forestry
Picturing Tropical Nature
Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazons, 1539, 1540, 1639
Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation
“Illusory Riches”
Mourning El Dorado
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
Utopianism and Marxism
The red queen and her king
The Trouble with Wilderness
De retorno a lo natural
A inversão de papéis no romance A Selva, de Ferreira de Castro, em uma perspectiva pós-colonial
The Social Contract and The First and Second Discourses
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |