The study looks at representations of the city as a space of "exile" (internal and external) in two novels by the Portuguese writer Ferreira de Castro, Emigrantes and A Selva, both inspired by the author's own experience as an emigrant in Brazil between 1911 and 1919. Taking into ac - count the theoretical presuppositions of imagology, the study analyzes the images of Brazilian cities filtered through the eyes of the protagonists/emigrants on their multiple journeys. It seeks to understand in what way the cities in question--Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Manaus and Belém do Pará--correspond to a single or diverse poetic space that is stereotyped or rooted in the writer's own personal mythology. The study also considers the ways in which alterity is introduced into the discourse through a relationship with the "Other," in confrontation with the "Self" and the space of origin. The analysis highlights various "readings" of the city as a space of exile, as well as the importance of the city as a setting for history, alterity and initiation into a "new world" and a setting for injustice and corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]