
Contesting the Climate Unthinkable
Latin American Cultural Responses to a Warming World
University Press of Florida
Will be published approx. on 6. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-1-68340-557-3 (ISBN)
Description
Examining Latin American cultural works that rethink environmental change and natural catastrophes
This volume explores Latin American cultural works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that reflect environmental changes brought on by colonization, capitalism, and resource exploitation. Contributors examine films, novels, photographs, and videos from the Caribbean, the Southern Cone, the Andes, and the Amazon, showcasing how artists, writers, and activists depict the scale and impact of ecological crises.
Drawing from environmental humanities, decolonial thought, and Indigenous scholarship, this book examines how relationships with the nonhuman reshape human understandings of ecological collapse and resilience. Contributors discuss movies on toxic waste in Chile and Bolivia, gothic elements in horror, art and mineral extraction in Venezuela, dystopian novels set in the Rio de la Plata, Mapuche poetry and dance in protest of terricidio, and utopias in Brazilian Afrofuturistic novels. They show how speculative fiction, testimonial narratives, experimental films, and site-specific installations address environmental disasters, climate breakdown, and extractivism, revealing the colonial histories and economic structures that underpin climate change.
The chapters in this book examine artistic forms that amplify the voices of affected communities and envision more ethical futures rooted in regional cultures, geographies, and practices. Highlighting the significance of perspectives from the Global South, this volume broadens understandings of environmental justice and ways of rethinking planetary survival.
Publication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Contributors: Paul Merchant Igor Barreto Ken Benson Victoria Saramago Jose Carlos Diaz Zanelli Andres Obando Jasmin Belmar Shagulian Patrick Brock Gianfranco Selgas Sebastian Wiedemann Roberto Roabilnho Azucena Castro Emily Baker Montserrat Madariaga-Caro Allison Mackey
This volume explores Latin American cultural works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that reflect environmental changes brought on by colonization, capitalism, and resource exploitation. Contributors examine films, novels, photographs, and videos from the Caribbean, the Southern Cone, the Andes, and the Amazon, showcasing how artists, writers, and activists depict the scale and impact of ecological crises.
Drawing from environmental humanities, decolonial thought, and Indigenous scholarship, this book examines how relationships with the nonhuman reshape human understandings of ecological collapse and resilience. Contributors discuss movies on toxic waste in Chile and Bolivia, gothic elements in horror, art and mineral extraction in Venezuela, dystopian novels set in the Rio de la Plata, Mapuche poetry and dance in protest of terricidio, and utopias in Brazilian Afrofuturistic novels. They show how speculative fiction, testimonial narratives, experimental films, and site-specific installations address environmental disasters, climate breakdown, and extractivism, revealing the colonial histories and economic structures that underpin climate change.
The chapters in this book examine artistic forms that amplify the voices of affected communities and envision more ethical futures rooted in regional cultures, geographies, and practices. Highlighting the significance of perspectives from the Global South, this volume broadens understandings of environmental justice and ways of rethinking planetary survival.
Publication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Contributors: Paul Merchant Igor Barreto Ken Benson Victoria Saramago Jose Carlos Diaz Zanelli Andres Obando Jasmin Belmar Shagulian Patrick Brock Gianfranco Selgas Sebastian Wiedemann Roberto Roabilnho Azucena Castro Emily Baker Montserrat Madariaga-Caro Allison Mackey
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Florida
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
15 b&w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
471 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68340-557-3 (9781683405573)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Azucena Castro, assistant professor of Latin American cultural studies at Rice University, is the author of Posnaturalezas poeticas: Pensamiento ecologico y politicas de la extraneza en la poesia latinoamericana contemporanea.
Gianfranco Selgas, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at University College London, is the author of Regionalismo ensamblado: Cultura, ecologia politica y extractivismos en Latinoamerica (1930-1940).
Ken Benson, emeritus professor of Spanish at Stockholm University, is the author of La subversion silente. Carmen Laforet: poetica y hermeneutica.
Gianfranco Selgas, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at University College London, is the author of Regionalismo ensamblado: Cultura, ecologia politica y extractivismos en Latinoamerica (1930-1940).
Ken Benson, emeritus professor of Spanish at Stockholm University, is the author of La subversion silente. Carmen Laforet: poetica y hermeneutica.