Narratives of Exhaustion and Brazilian (Literary) Historiography in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Taking as its starting point the enthronement of the Anthropocene concept in human science discourses, the article links the new narrative impulse generated by the awareness both of the destructive impact of human action upon planet Earth, and of the threat of depletion of natural resources – ultimately directly linked to the extinction of the human species itself – to the emergence of narratives of depletion committed to situated practices of resistance. The aim is to emphasize the performative aspect in this new gesture of narration, which invariably implies rewriting Brazilian literary history from perspectives beyond the human. From the methodological point of view, the article is based on the dialogue between neomaterialist theories (HARAWAY 1989; 2015; 2016) and Amerindian perspectivism (VIVEIROS DE CASTRO, 2009; 2014) with theoretical constructs proposed by the École des Annales and revisited by contemporary historians (CHAKRABARTY, 2009; SAWYER, 2015).