Aquatic Imaginary in Brazilian Prose

A mythical element in art throughout its history, water appears in various forms in Brazilian literature as a powerful metaphor for origin and as a political space traversed by various types of characters. From a trans-historical and interdisciplinary perspective, the lecture presents works from different periods and authorial voices, in narratives that unfold on, within, or with water as a witness or agent in literary narratives. The selected corpus features aquatic images that present subjects in transit, including indigenous people, enslaved people, and immigrants. From lakes to rivers and oceans, the lecture will explore the construction of scenes in which water can be understood as a vast liquid archive of many stories to be (re)told. This lecture will be in Portuguese. 

Stefania Chiarelli is Professor at the Universidade Federal Fluminense and a well-known literary critic. Her recent publications include co-editing Histórias de água: o imaginário marítimo em narrativas brasileiras, portuguesas e africanas (Peter Lang, 2023).