Banca de DEFESA: CAMILA SAVENHAGO DE LIMA

Uma banca de DEFESA de MESTRADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : CAMILA SAVENHAGO DE LIMA
DATE: 26/06/2026
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: Banca remota - Canal do Youtube do Departamento de História
TITLE:

Discourses of the Forest: Political Rationality and Environmental Legislation in the Estado Novo (1934–1940)

KEY WORDS:

Forest Code; Estado Novo; Amazon; authoritarian modernization; rationalization of nature

PAGES: 124
BIG AREA: Ciências Humanas
AREA: História
SUBÁREA: História do Brasil
SPECIALTY: História Regional do Brasil
SUMMARY:

This dissertation investigates the articulation between the 1934 Forest Code and the 1940 Amazon River Speech as expressions of a policy of rationalization and control of nature in the context of the Estado Novo (1937-1945), with an emphasis on the Amazon. The general objective is to analyze how these legal and rhetorical instruments constructed a narrative of integration of the region into the authoritarian and modernizing project of the Vargas government. The research adopts a qualitative approach based on documentary and theoretical analysis. The corpus includes the Forest Code, the Amazon River Speech, the journal Cultura Política (from the Brazilian Digital Newspaper Library), posters and photographs by Jean Pierre Chabloz (from the MAUC/UFC collection), as well as contemporary newspaper reports (Correio da Manhã, A Noite, Correio do Ceará, O Estado). The theoretical framework articulates the concepts of symbolic power (Pierre Bourdieu), hegemony (Antonio Gramsci), and governmentality/pastoral power (Michel Foucault). The results demonstrate that: (1) pre-1930 Brazilian environmental criticism already linked conservation to economic progress, constructing the Amazon as a “void” to be conquered; (2) the 1934 Forest Code classified forests into four categories (protective, remnant, model, and yield), subordinating conservation to the logic of yield and creating surveillance devices that proved ineffective in practice; (3) the March to the West and the Amazon River Speech translated this rationality into epic rhetoric, and the Rubber Battle materialized the predatory exploitation of workers and the forest; (4) the journal Cultura Política and DIP propaganda consolidated consensus around authoritarian modernization, forging a bandeirante tradition and the figure of Vargas as a shepherd-leader. The conclusion is that the Forest Code and the Amazon River Speech were not environmental protection instruments but materializations of an authoritarian modernization that subordinated nature to the logic of economic progress and national security, a legacy that persists in contemporary agrarian conflicts and deforestation in the Amazon.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 1026320 - ANTONIO CLAUDIO BARBOSA RABELLO
Interno - 1526681 - ALEXANDRE PACHECO
Externa à Instituição - MONICA PICCOLO ALMEIDA CHAVES - UEMA