An ecocritical approach to Spanish-American literature.

Language

Spanish

Prerequisites

Consolidated B2 level in Spanish. 

Main themes

The course proposes a study of a large corpus of poetry, cinema and narrative from Hispanic America (20th and 21st centuries). This corpus brings together texts that explore the relationships that human beings maintain with exploited plants within the framework of a system determined by the extractivism typical of (post)colonial modernity. From this common thematic feature, the course will attempt to raise a series of questions: 

• How is agriculture and farmers represented in their living and working spaces; how do they consider the plant and animal beings with which they interact; what ontology do they mobilise? 
• How is forestry and agricultural extractivism represented in the literature, what are the generic and intertextual references used, and to what ends (critical, parodic, etc.)? 
• How does the gender perspective shed light on the relationship between the multiple actors involved in the activities and businesses linked to monocultures?

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	establish the link between the literary/film representation of agrarian and forest extractivism and the socio-economic and political circumstances of the writing context;
2	identify how and in what way the literary or filmic text makes visible the ontologies repressed by Western modernity;
3	analyse the literary strategies employed in the representation of intensive monocultures (recourse to Gothic topoi, “sedimentation” writing, etc.);
4	develop a critical approach to the various philosophical currents linked to eco-feminism in relation to the works studied.
This learning unit contributes to the development and command of the following skills and learning outcomes of the ELAL programmes (ELAL learning outcomes): 2.7, 3.2,3.5, 4.1, 4.2, 4.4

Content

The course focuses on the way in which nature makes visible and sensitive the ways in which human communities relate to the plant worlds from which they draw their subsistence. The first part of the course takes a historical-literary approach, highlighting the different literary traditions in which this topic appears: the oda, the novela de la selva, the narrativa (neo)indigenista, the narrativa magicorrealista del medio siglo, and so on. These different literary currents act as relays for alternative ontologies to Western naturalist ontology (Descola), which have been inferiorised or denied during Latin America's colonial and post-colonial history. The second part of the course explores the representation of agrarian and forest extractivism in a corpus of twenty-first century women writers: Lukin, Schweblin, Rivera Garza, etc. We will study the different literary strategies linked to the demands of 'toxic discourse' (Buell) and ‘desedimentation’ (Rivera Garza). The convergence of feminist and ecologist struggles represented in the corpus will give rise to a critical discussion of the main currents and theses of ecofeminism. 

Teaching methods

The course will work as a seminar and based on a reader incorporating both theoretical reflections literary works. The The course will alternate between lectures, discussions of articles and literary or film analyses presented by small groups of students. 

Evaluation methods

The final mark sums up the results of the continuous assessment (20%) and the final oral examination (80%), which will include the oral presentation of a personal project. For the September session, only the final oral exam will be taken into account. 

Bibliography

Portefeuille de lecture sur Moodle. Livres à lire, empruntables à la bibliothèque. 

Teaching materials

• LRESP2844 Antología de textos

Faculty or entity

> ELAL