A ficcionalização dos seringais amazônicos em Banco de Canoa – cenas de rios e seringais do Amazonas, de Álvaro Botelho Maia

Abstract

This dissertation, entitled “The fictionalization of the Amazonian rubber plantations in Banco de Canoa – cenas de rios e seringais do Amazonas, by Álvaro Botelho Maia”, aimed to analyze this book, in order to investigate how the Amazonian rubber plantations are fictionalized in the work, considering as theoretical and thematic parameters the historical panorama of the rubber cycle in the Amazon and its representation in literature, especially in the fiction of the Amazonian writer Álvaro Maia, in dialogue with Márcio Souza (2010) and Lucilene Lima (2007); the general theory of imaginary applied to the Amazonian context by Paes Loureiro (2001); and reflections about the presence of the sacred in the Amazon, in different cuts related to the sacred and profane dichotomy and its implications in the individuals and collectivities ways of life, as shown in the narratives of the book under study, based on Mircea Eliade (1992), Eduardo Galvão (1955), Paes Loureiro (2002) and Socorro Santiago (1986). The study shows the innovative character of the author, for creating a peculiar way, own, to say the world of gum economy, so portrayed by other fictionists, but never the way he set up their plots, dialoguing with different literary forms and practically spraying the borders between literary chronicle, short story, essay, autobiography and documentary. In this multifaceted creation, he made an unequivocal contribution so that the reader can interpret the contradictions that involve the issues related to the enigmatic portion of the planet, which is the Amazon, and one of the most emblematic periods of its history, that was the rubber cycle.