Chaos as Ecological and Autochthonous Expression: An Ecocritical Study of \u3cem\u3eLa vorágine\u3c/em\u3e

This article utilizes principles of ecological criticism to provide new readings of both the role and presentation of nature in José Eustasio Rivera’s novel La vorágine. Whereas critics have heretofore focused on Rivera’s memorable subjective descriptions of the Amazon jungle, the present study foregrounds the rich diversity of the real organisms represented in these depictions. In addition, this essay explores the connections between the text’s core trope, chaos, and the current ecological and social scientific understanding of the ecology and the human history of the Amazon Basin