Nos seringais da Amazônia (1890-1920): o drama humano no romance “Andirá” de Paulo Jacob

Abstract

This article is the result of research for the Course Completion Work (TCC) in Degree in History and aims to carry out an analysis of the socioeconomic relations of the historical period defined as the first rubber cycle in the Amazon, using as a source the literary work “Andirá” by Paulo Jacob. From a perspective of history seen from below, the themes analyzed start from the mechanism of economic dependence on foreign capital to the social relations within the rubber plantations, in the cities of the interior of Amazonas and in the capital Manaus, where the wealth produced in the region was concentrated. The novel, used here as a fruitful source, shows us to be a rich universe that deeply captures the human drama during the crisis of the period studied. In addition, the present work proposes to know a little more consistently the work of the novelist Paulo Jacob, still little known in the Amazon region, yet awarded at the national level. In the 1960s, the novelist and also jurist Paulo Jacob, even appearing as part of the political and economic elite of Amazonas, shows in the pages of “Andirá” the exploitation and violence that the ruling class, based on the rubber economy, exerted on the workers. The analysis of themes mapped within the literary source, shows us signs of the problems resulting from the social conditions in the economic cycle studied.