The Amazonian Portugal of Ferreira de Castro and the Northeastern Amazon of Paulo Jacob. A look of between-two on the homeland

Abstract

The novels A Selva (1930), by the Portuguese writer Ferreira de Castro (1898-1974), and Dos Ditos Passados nos Acercados do Cassianã (1969), by the Brazilian writer Paulo Jacob (1921-2004), have as a common theme the lives of migrant in an Amazonian rubber plantation, during the first rubber era. Through this initiation experience, they deviate from an atavistic speech about their Lusitanian and Northeastern origins (“idem-identity”), as they approach the Amazonian reality (“ipse-identity”) (Ricœur 1990). Our goal is to analyze how this in-between look reconstructs the image of the homeland, noting the socio-historical relations between colony and metropolis, and between the North and Northeast regions of Brazil. Finally, we propose a reflection on the lack of visibility of these works within the literary landscape.