Gendered Politics of Empire: The Female Explorateur and Natural Histories of the Amazon Bain 1899-1901

• In Event: Retracing Literary and Visual Aesthetics in Brazilian Cultural Production

Abstract

At the turn of the 20th century, the Brazilian Amazon was experiencing a moment of heightened exploration, mapping, border creation, and contestation. This article examines the production of the French explorateur and geographer Octavie Coudreau through analysis of the natural history/travel narrative, Voyage au Trombetas (1899), and her subsequent narrative Voyage au Cuminá (1901). Octavie Coudreau initially came to Amazônia to travel with her husband, Henri Coudreau, already a renowned explorer of the French and Brazilian Amazon. After Henri Coudreau’s death on their first voyage, Octavie Coudreau continued working under contract for the Brazilian state and published natural history narratives after each of her four exploratory and mapping missions. These travel narratives include suggestions for increased colonization along with observation of local populaces, supported by a multitude of maps and photographs. Using critical gender theory, theories of empire, and travel narrative critique, I examine the female white European explorer’s view of imperialism in part through a comparison with her husband’s earlier work during this significant period in Amazonian history and development. Ultimately, I find that Octavie Coudreau’s exceptionality as a female geographer of Amazônia pushed her toward an alternative gender identification – that of a dominant masculinized explorateur -- who could claim a complicated imperial and racial superiority, and thus exert control over her surroundings.

Key words: cartography, Brazilian Amazon, female geographers, travel and adventure literature, national development, modernization, imperialism

Author

• Jessica Carey-Webb, University of Texas