Darkness in the Seasonal Savannah: The Brazilian Cerrado in Stories by Hugo de Carvalho Ramos

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.21.1.2022.3849

Keywords:

Brazilian Savannah (Cerrado), Climate, Water, Fire, Savannah Landscapes, Tropical Gothic Literature

Abstract

This article analyzes the feelings that emerge in savannah landscapes, specifically in the Brazilian savannah (Cerrado), through the short stories Dias de Chuva and Gente da Gleba, by the writer Hugo de Carvalho Ramos (1895—1921). The two stories, which are part of the collection Tropas e Boiadas (1917), contain traces of Tropical Gothic literature. The Cerrado landscape is marked by climatic seasonality that manifests itself in two well-defined seasons: humid summers (where there is plenty of rain) and dry winters (with no rain and the incidence of large fires). In the analyzed works, blue and red are considered fundamental colours that help us understand the sentiments that mark the landscape in each season. It is suggested that yearnings and expectations about the future are feelings strongly manifested in the wet season and are associated with the processes of gestation and dissolution of life promoted by water. Fears and regrets, on the other hand, emerge with more force in the face of the destructiveness of fire in the dry season, under the red that dominates the landscape. Loneliness and indifference are two feelings that are omnipresent in both seasons and manifest as blue and red indifference.

Author Biographies

André Vasques Vital, Evangelical University of Goiás, Brazil

Dr André Vasques Vital is Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Society, Technology, and Environment (PPGSTMA) at the Evangelical University of Goiás -UniEVANGELICA. He is co-editor of the book Águas no Brasil: Conflitos, Atores, e Práticas (Editora Alameda, 2019) and has published articles in important international journals such as Feminist Media Studies and ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. He also co-edited the special issue Tropical Imaginaries and Climate Crisis: Embracing Relational Climate Discourses (eTropic, 2021). His works propose a non-humanist historical perspective, mainly through fantasy and science fiction animations, where waters and non-human animals are understood as active agents in the constitution of the past.

Sandro Dutra e Silva, Evangelical University of Goiás, Brazil; State University of Goiás, Brazil

Dr Sandro Dutra e Silva is Full Professor at the Evangelical University of Goiás, working in the Graduate Program on Environmental Sciences. He is also Associate Professor at the State University of Goiás, working in the Department of History and Environmental Science. He is author of the book No Oeste, a Terra e o Céu: A Expansão da Fronteira Agrícola no Brasil Central (Mauad X, 2017). He coordinates the laboratory of Environmental History from the Cerrado Biome, and has published articles in important international journals related to the topic of the agricultural frontier in Central Brazil. He is currently the Editor in Chief of the HALAC, the journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Society for Environmental History.

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Published

2022-03-30

How to Cite

Vital, A. V., & Dutra e Silva, S. (2022). Darkness in the Seasonal Savannah: The Brazilian Cerrado in Stories by Hugo de Carvalho Ramos. ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, 21(1), 239–258. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.21.1.2022.3849