Os filhos da natureza: Figurações do indígena no romance brasileiro dos anos 1930

This article analyzes representations of indigenous people in Brazilian fiction from the 1930s to understand their presence in the national imaginary of the time. At the time, there was a deepening of the debate on social, productive, and institutional modernization, especially toward the promotion of industrialization in the most dynamic economic areas and the expansion of the state presence in the inlands and the wild regions. The research sources selected for this article include Menotti del Picchia's entertainment literature, Graciliano Ramos's neorealist writing, and Cornelio Penna's mystical and introspective fiction. Through such diversity, the author looks for perceptions of the indigenous as objects, obstacles, or historical subjects. Indigenous peoples are most often viewed as figures or symbols rather than real and contemporary individuals, and their image is simultaneously involved with modernization projects and questioning the country's historical trajectory.