Malarial Philosophy: The Modernista Amazonia of Mário de Andrade

Abstract

This article studies the region’s sanitary conditions as portrayed in scientist Carlos Chagas’ account as a way to better understand writer Mário de Andrade’s 1927 chronicles, published posthumously as O turista aprendiz (The Apprentice Tourist), in which -quite originally- he understands malaria as a vehicle for creativity. The authors read Chagas’ medical perspective as a way of better approaching the kind of operations that Mário de Andrade performs, and which undermine the discourse of science that sees malaria as an endemic problem to be solved. The authors distinguish the way in which Mário and Brazilian modernismo approached the Amazon from previous canonical descriptions, mainly the highly influential one of Euclides da Cunha. In his playful descriptions of the region and its inhabitants, Mário de Andrade sees malaria as a different form of relating to space and knowledge, as a state of mind prone to contemplation and productive immobility.