Ecological Crisis and Cultural Representation in Latin America: Ecocritical Perspectives on Art, Film, and Literature

The term Anthropocene has been used to describe the global scale of environmental and geological transformations caused by humans over the last two centuries. The chapters in Ecological Crisis and Cultural Representation in Latin America examine the dynamics and interplay between local cultures and the expansion of global capitalism, focusing on the problems of time, scale, and complexity as key terms in conceiving the dimensions of crisis. They question the notion of the Anthropocene as a species-wide human historical project and develop a notion of ecological crisis that captures its documentary sense and the crisis in the modern worldview.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 362 pages
\n Publication date: 31 August 2018
\n Publisher: Lexington Books
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Over the past few decades, the worldwide environmental crisis has become increasingly apparent as the full extent of anthropogenic climate change becomes evident and large-scale natural resource extraction extends into previously remote regions that were once thought to be beyond the reach of industrialization. Scientists and the general public have embraced the term Anthropocene to describe the global scale of environmental and geological transformations caused by humans over the past two centuries. The chapters in Ecological Crisis and Cultural Representation in Latin America explore the dynamics and interplay between local cultures and the expansion of global capitalism in Latin America, highlighting the role of art in documenting and raising awareness of environmental and social crises while also exploring its potential for proposing solutions. These chapters specifically emphasize how local environmental crises in Latin American nations are experienced and perceived as part of a broader global system, particularly focusing on the challenges of time, scale, and complexity in understanding the dimensions of these crises. At the same time, they challenge the notion of the Anthropocene as a species-wide human historical project, unveiling the coloniality of natural resource extraction in Latin America and its devastating consequences for local communities, cultures, and environments. By adopting an ecocritical perspective, the chapters in this volume develop a notion of ecological crisis that encompasses not only its documentary manifestation in the representation of environmental destruction (the degradation of the oikos) but also the crisis in the modern worldview (logos) that arises from acknowledging the existence of this crisis.

\n Weight: 556g\n
Dimension: 153 x 226 x 30 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781498530972\n \n