Mapping the Amazon: Literary Geography After the Rubber Boom by Amanda M. Smith

Amanda M. Smith's Mapping the Amazon: Literary Geography After the Rubber Boom reveals that canonical South American novels challenge traditional cartography by depicting Amazonia through a 'living geography' rooted in Indigenous knowledge and multispecies wayfinding, contrasting it with the extractive industries' 'dead geography.' Analyzing works by Rivera, Gallegos, Vargas Llosa, Calvo, and Souza, Smith demonstrates how literary representations of the Amazon reflect historical extractivism while critiquing its cultural and ecological impacts. The study employs geocriticism and environmental humanities to dissect narratives, including a pivotal scene in La vorágine where a character navigates using Indigenous botanical cues, underscoring the region's complex interplay between literary imagination and real-world consequences.

Rogers, C. (2023). Mapping the Amazon: Literary Geography After the Rubber Boom by Amanda M. Smith. Revista Hispánica Moderna, 76(1), 115–117. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhm.2023.0008