Ecofictions, Ecorealities, and Slow Violence in Latin America and the Latinx World PDF
Preview Ecofictions, Ecorealities, and Slow Violence in Latin America and the Latinx World
Ecofictions, Ecorealities, and Slow Violence in Latin America and the Latinx World Ecofictions, Ecorealities, and Slow Violence in Latin America and the Latinx World brings together critical studies of Latin American and Latinx writing, film, visual, and performing arts to offer new perspectives on ecological violence. Building on Rob Nixon’s concept of “slow violence,” the contributions to the volume explore the processes of environmental destruction that are not immediately visible yet expand in time and space and transcend the limits of our experience. Authors consider these forms of destruction in relation to new material contexts of artistic creation, practices of activism, and cultural production in Latin American and Latinx worlds. Their critical contributions investigate how writers, cultural activists, filmmakers, and visual and performance artists across the region conceptualize, visualize, and document this invisible but far- reaching realm of violence that so tenaciously resists representation. The volume highlights the dense web of material relations in which all is enmeshed and calls attention to a notion of agency that transcends the anthropocentric, engaging a cognition envisioned as embodied, collective, and relational. Ecofictions, Ecorealities, and Slow Violence measures the breadth of creative imaginings and critical strategies from Latin America and Latinx contexts to enrich contemporary ecocritical studies in an era of heightened environmental vulnerability. Ilka Kressner received her PhD in Spanish from the University of Virginia. She is currently Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Ana María Mutis received her PhD in Spanish at the University of Virginia. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Trinity University. Elizabeth M. Pettinaroli received her PhD in Spanish Literature at the University of Virginia. She is currently Associate Professor of Spanish Literature and Chair of Latin American and Latinx Studies at Rhodes College. Routledge Studies in World Literatures and the Environment Human Minds and Animal Stories How Narratives Make Us Care About Other Species Wojciech Małecki, Piotr Sorokowski, Bogusław Pawłowski, and Marcin Cieński Climate and Crises Magical Realism as Environmental Discourse Ben Holgate Ecocriticism and the Semiosis of Poetry Holding on to Proteus Aaron Moe Christina Rossetti’s Environmental Consciousness Todd O. Williams Ecoprecarity Vulnerable Lives in Literature and Culture Pramod K. Nayar The Environment on Stage Scenery or Shapeshifter? Julie Hudson Ecofictions, Ecorealities, and Slow Violence in Latin America and the Latinx World Edited by Ilka Kressner, Ana María Mutis, and Elizabeth M. Pettinaroli For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ Routledge-Studies-in-World-Literatures-and-the-Environment/book-series/ ASHER4038 Ecofictions, Ecorealities, and Slow Violence in Latin America and the Latinx World Edited by Ilka Kressner, Ana María Mutis and Elizabeth M. Pettinaroli First published 2020 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Taylor & Francis The right of Ilka Kressner, Ana María Mutis and Elizabeth M. Pettinaroli to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-367-42671-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-00177-5 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of Illustrations viii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 2 ILKA KRESSNER, ANA MARÍA MUTIS, AND ELIZABETH M. PETTINAROLI PART I Bad Living: Mutations, Monsters and Phantoms 37 1 Monsters and Agritoxins: The Environmental Gothic in Samanta Schweblin’s Distancia de rescate 39 ANA MARÍA MUTIS 2 Toxic Nature in Contemporary Argentine Narratives: Contaminated Bodies and Ecomutations 55 GISELA HEFFES 3 The Ruins of Modernity: Synecdoche of Neoliberal Mexico in Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 74 DIANA ALDRETE PART II Econarratives and Ecopoetics of Slow Violence 93 4 The Representation of Slow Violence and the Spatiality of Injustice in Y tu mamá también and T emporada de patos 95 LAURA BARBAS-RHODEN vi Contents 5 The Voice of Water: Spiritual Ecology, Memory, and Violence in Daughter of the Lake and The Pearl Button 114 IDA DAY 6 From Polluted Swan Song to Happy Armadillos: The Cold War’s Slow Violence in Nicaragua 128 JACOB G. PRICE PART III Protracted Degradation and the Slow Violence of Toxicity 145 7 Collateral Damage: Nature and the Accumulation of Capital in Héctor Aguilar Camín’s El resplandor de la madera and Jennifer Clement’s P rayers for the Stolen 147 ADRIAN TAYLOR KANE 8 Violence, Slow and Explosive: Spectrality, Landscape, and Trauma in Evelio Rosero’s L os ejércitos 162 CARLOS GARDEAZÁBAL BRAVO 9 The Environmentalism of Poor Women of Color in Mayra Santos-Febres’s Nuestra Señora de la Noche 180 CHARLOTTE ROGERS PART IV Materialities, Performances, and Ecologies of Praxis 197 10 Slow Violence in a Digital World: Tarahumara Apocalypse and Endogenous Meaning in Mulaka 199 LAUREN WOOLBRIGHT 11 Slow Violence in the Scientific Ecosystem: Decolonial Ecocriticism on Science in the Global South 218 THAIANE OLIVEIRA 12 Bodies, Transparent Matter, and Immateriality: Compagnie Käfig’s Ecodance Performances 236 ILKA KRESSNER Contents vii 13 Llubia Negra : Fetishism of Form, Temporalities of Waste, and Slow Violence in Cartonera Publishing of the Triple Frontier (Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina) 257 ELIZABETH M. PETTINAROLI Contributors 277 Index 281 Illustrations 0.1 Pedro Ruiz: Total Eclipse of the Heart (2006) 1 5.1 Nélida Ayay in Daughter of the Lake (2015) 118 10.1 Terégori Esqueltico, the Lord of Death, as he appears in a cutscene (in-game cinematic passage during which the player does not have control of the player-character) 210 10.2 Wa’ruara Gu’wi, the Seeló boss in the town of Paquime 213 11.1 The entirety of the Brazilian scientific output on climate change 228 11.2 Network of coauthorship of Brazilian and international research on climate change 229 12.1 Agwa (2014) 242 12.2 Agwa , final moments 243 12.3 Pixel (2015) 250 13.1 Llubia Negra: 11 narradores paraguayos y non- paraguayos (2009) 259 13.2 Various publications by Yiyi Yambo c artonera publishing house, using local textiles and materials such as ñandutí —a traditional Paraguayan embroidered lace knitted by local women 260 13.3 Photo collage by Douglas Diegues, L lubia Negra: 11 narradores paraguayos y non-paraguayos (2009) 270 13.4 Yiyi Yambo collective 272 Acknowledgments Novel and creative responses to ecological slow violence on the part of activists, writers, and theorists in the Latin American and Latinx worlds inspired this collaborative project, and the interest and enthusiasm of many individuals helped our ideas develop into what became this vol- ume. For their generous contributions of chapters and their conscien- tious work toward the volume’s completion, we would like to thank the authors: Diana Aldrete, Laura Barbas-Rhoden, Ida Day, Carlos Gardeazábal Bravo, Gisela Heffes, Adrian Taylor Kane, Thaiane Oliveira, Jacob G. Price, Charlotte Rogers, and Lauren Woolbright. Our project’s first collective open forum took place in the context of the panel “The Dimensions of Disaster: Scale, Circulation, and the Specular Economy in Latin American Disaster Writing,” held at the International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), in Barce- lona, Spain, in May 2018. Our thanks go to Mark Anderson for spear- heading this effort and for facilitating discussions on the topics, works, and methodologies. The VII Annual SARAS Conference (South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies) in December of 2017 in Maldonado, Uruguay, provided several of the authors in this collabo- ration with a place to bring ecocritical perspectives into dialogue with the environmental humanities in the region and to rethink our contribu- tions from truly trans- and interdisciplinary perspectives. We are grateful to Nestor Mazzeo, Jorge Marcone, Eduardo Gudynas, George Handley, Víctor Vich, Rachel Price, Patrícia Vieira, Zelia M. Bora, Andrea Casals, and Jesse Lee Kercheval, among others, for enriching dialogues. Doug- las Diegues and Fernando Villaraga opened a window onto c artonera publishing practices and welcomed us to share in activists’ and writers’ innovative responses to slow violence. Colleagues have been critical, inspiring, and passionate interlocutors about ecocriticism in Latin American and Latinx worlds. At UAlbany and Trinity University, thanks go to Alejandra Aguilar Dornelles, Jesús Alonso-Regalado, Alejandra Bronfman, Selma Cohen, Luis Cuesta, Timo- thy Sergay, Carmen Serrano, and Heather Sullivan. Pablo J. Davis shared his expertise in and love for Latin America and always found time for
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