The Jungle Remembers

On a rainy day two of this year’s Festivaletteratura, Colombian novelist Pilar Quintana discussed her latest novel Noche Negra (Dark Night) with journalist Ludovica Lugli. The story unfolds in Colombia’s western jungle, following Rosa, a woman living in a half-constructed house, facing solitude and the dangers of nature. With this novel, Quintana wanted to investigate the Pacific Coast of her home country, an inaccessible jungle region, separated from the mainland by the Andes mountains.

Noche negra is not autofiction, but is influenced by Quintana’s own reality. Moving to the jungle from her hometown of Calí, living in nature was a lonely experience. The literary theme of humans fighting against nature has interested the author for a long time. She feels a responsibility to narrate an unknown zone without exoticising it, critiquing the idealisation of nature in she has seen from city dwellers and European travellers in South America. For Quintana, living in harmony with nature means being in a constant fight with it.

The dialogue naturally moved on to Tropical Gothic, a literary genre often traced to Álvaro Mutis’s La mansión de Araucaíma (The Manor of Araucaima). However, Quintana argues its roots lie in María, a 19th-century Colombian novel that initially portrays the jungle in a romantic light before descending into melancholy and darkness as its protagonist crosses the Andes. In recent years an inspiring modern Tropical Gothic has emerged among female South American writers.

Finally, Quintana explores the inexhaustible theme of maternity. The struggles of frustrated mothers are just one facet of the complex experience of maternity. The writer wants to show the darker sides of being a mother, to shine a light on the harsh reality that many women face.

Quintana’s literature wishes to narrate the unseen with honesty and depth. In doing so, she enriches Colombian literature, challenges global stereotypes tied to violence or natural disasters, and invites readers to engage with the world more critically and empathetically.