A Zoom Conversation with Victoria Saramago, University of Chicago. Part of the “Pressing Matters” Lecture Series. "The Brazilian Backlands Reconstructed: Environmental Mimesis in João Guimarães Rosa’s The Devil to Pay in the Backlands", discussing how Brazil's foremost 20th century novel has inspired conservationist initiatives and offered counterpoints to developmentalist policies, and how environmental concerns informed the agenda of its author as essayist and public intellectual.  Zoom Registration is required for this event. Registration deadline April 28. Please click here to register.

Victoria Saramago is Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. She works in the intersection of ecocriticism and fiction theory. She is interested in theoretical approaches to the representation of forest and rural areas in Latin America, Luso-Hispanic dialogues, Environmental Humanities, Energy Humanities, and transatlantic uses of the term sertão (commonly translated as backlands) in lusophone cultures. Her most recent book, Fictional Environments: Mimesis, Deforestation, and Development in Latin America explores how novels can help us make sense of environmental change. It investigates the dynamic relationship between fictional images and real places, as the lasting representations of forests, rural areas, and deserts in novels clash with collective perceptions of changes like deforestation and urbanization.