『스페인어문학』. 2019.12.31

Cho, Guho(2019), The Amazon jungle and the man in The Vortex, Estudios Hispánicos, 93, 149-173. 

The Vortex(1924) of José Eustasio Rivera transforms the cruel, violent and hostile Amazon jungle excellently and is estimated as an epic story of tropical nature. The novel shows the perplexity and uneasiness of the narrator in the face of the terrible force of nature and denounces the greedy of the man and the criminal exploitation of nature by the rubber tappers. Also shows that how the instinctive attitudes of the man manifest in a world without laws. Especially, according to the way in which each fictional character exists and his vision of the world, the relations between man and nature are expressed differently. Investigate the type of the man that relates to nature, the elements and the characteristics of nature through the fictional characters would be a shortcut to understand exactly and deeply the theme of the novel. In this article, we will research the relationships established between man and nature. For this, we will understand how greedy, wild and mysterious nature appears, how the fictional characters relate, with what point of view the civilized man looks at nature, how the conflict between man and nature manifests, how is the man's way of existing decided in nature, how the force of nature destroys man.

[Rivera/ The Vortex/ Amazon jungle/ nature/ man; 리베라/ 소용돌이/ 아마존 밀림/ 자연/ 인간]

소용돌이는, 그 미학적인 가치는 차치하고, 사람을 죽이는 원시 밀림에 관해 지금까지 쓰인 것들 가운데 가장 웅대한 서사 시다.

- H. Keyserling -