Abstract

DORFMAN, Adriana. "Small underwater bridges": geographical and anthropological interpretations of smuggler's literature. Bol. Mus. Para. Emilio Goeldi Cienc. Hum. [online]. 2008, vol.3, n.1, pp.93-114. ISSN 1981-8122.

The research on smuggling has to employ multiple tools as a result of the secrecy inherent to this practice. This investigation about the bagayeros, i.e., small-scale smugglers in activity at Santana do Livramento and Rivera, cities on the Brazilian- Uruguayan boundary, leans on the geographical interpretation of literature and on an ethnography informed by cultural translation theories. The first part of this article discusses the possible uses of fiction by human sciences, in particular by geography and anthropology; follows the analysis of six stories written and set on the gaucho boundary, examined in aspects such as its internal logics and its relation to its predecessors. Both specific and general border metaphors were collected and mapped, to be employed in the study of the meanings bestowed upon this geographical object by its inhabitants. The following step is to research metaphors employed in border literature from france, and the comparative study of different geo-historical contexts of production of borders and its cultural objects, always testing the correspondence between geography and culture in search of elements for a deeper understanding of the border as a daily experience.

Keywords : Smugglers; Borders; Literary regionalism; Cultural translation.

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