In the ruins of progress: a misreading of Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon by Jorge Amado

Abstract

The article argues that, in the era of the Anthropocene, Jorge Amado’s novel Gabriela, Cravo e Canela can be subject to an ironic reinterpretation that subverts its traditional Marxist and liberal readings. The opposition between Colonel Ramiro Bastos and Mundinho Falcão no longer represents the well-known clash between tradition and modernity but instead symbolizes the tension between two modes of social life: one rooted in the community and natural environment (the garden), and the other driven by economic globalization (the dredging of the harbor). Though flawed, this reinterpretation reflects an atmosphere marked by melancholy and disillusionment, in which economic progress is no longer seen as a vector of development but rather as an agent of environmental destruction and the erosion of authentic social forms of life.