Travel writing, religion and the invention of the other: representing identity in “the forest of marvels”

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyse how the background knowledge of travellers from the Old World have determined how they would experience American space. Such knowledge is more specifically directed in my study towards religion and politics, as my analysis intends to scrutinise how such realms made – and still make – subjects get to questionable conclusions since both Christianity and capitalism (crucial institutions of Western society) have had the normative tradition of disregarding the possibility of any meanings to deviate from their main epistemes. My specific context, in this sense, concerns the travel book A Journey in Brazil (Agassiz, 1868) and Maria Helena Machado’s compilation of William James’ diary – Brazil through the Eyes of William James (James, 2006) – both written during the same trip to the Amazon. Main findings are: Louis Agassiz ambitious projects in America – more specifically the Amazon – prevented him from being as challenged by the journey as William James ends up being; there is enough literary evidence to assume that, in overall terms, his Christian bigotry made him immobile and unflappable when facing difference.