This lecture examines scenes of navigation in the fiction of Alberto Rangel, paying particular attention to his book Inferno Verde (1908). It focuses on two main aspects. First, it explores the rhetoric surrounding engineer characters in Rangel’s stories. Given that Rangel himself was an engineer who worked in the Amazon, the lecture examines the logics and practices associated with the engineer’s way of seeing the landscape and capital. Second, it considers the logics of speed and acceleration as part of this engineering rhetoric. How does the engineer seek to transform movement, circulation, and mobility in the Amazon, and how does nature—particularly the rivers—respond to the accelerating impulse of modernity embodied by the engineer? What different rhythms, speeds, and flows are staged in Alberto Rangel’s fiction?
Zoom Link:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88322246587?pwd=WKa9lz0HQThFJp8LuYy6GC6mrLCrG1.1