Nature Fantasies: Decolonization and Biopolitics in Latin America

Gabriel Horowitz examines Latin American writers' work through contemporary theoretical debates about nature, postcoloniality, and national identity, tracing historical constructions of nature in regional intellectual traditions and texts that inform political culture on the global stage. He identifies a common narrative thread that imagines the utopian wilderness of the New World as a symbolic site of independence from Spain, leading to a movement away from political and social engagement and toward a "biopolitical state" in which nature becomes its center.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 176 pages
Publication date: 13 October 2023
Publisher: Bucknell University Press,U.S.

Gabriel Horowitz's study explores the work of select nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American writers through the lens of contemporary theoretical debates about nature, postcoloniality, and national identity. He traces historical constructions of nature in regional intellectual traditions and texts, identifying a common narrative thread that imagines the utopian wilderness of the New World as a symbolic site of independence from Spain. Horowitz argues that an expressed desire to return to the nation's foundational nature contributed to a movement away from political and social engagement and toward a "biopolitical state," in which nature, traditionally seen as pre-political, becomes its center.

Weight: 41g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781684484997