Trips, vortexes and banzeiros: Immersion in the Amazon rainforest and the nature of the media

In numerous travel accounts about immersion in the Amazon rainforest, the metropolitan subject faces an oppressive experience due to the intense heat, dense vegetation, fauna noises, and persistent insects, resulting in disorientation, torn clothes, and fever. Some are even swallowed by the jungle, as exemplified in the novel “La vorágine” by José Eustasio Rivera. Despite being a colonial cliché, these accounts enable a critical reflection on the media and their inadequate mediation. In dialogue with researchers such as John Durham Peters and Melody Jue, the analysis of these narratives proposes a reconfiguration of media theory, considering the ecological and human specificity of the forest, evidenced in contemporary works such as Laura Huertas Millán’s films and Eliane Brum’s essay, “Banzeiro Òkòtó: A Journey to the Amazon Center of the World” (2021).