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Decentering the Anthropocene: Spanish Ecocritical Texts and the Non-Human

deadline for submissions:
September 16, 2019

full name / name of organization:
Maryanne Leone, Assumption College, and Shanna Lino, York University

contact email:
maleone@assumption.edu

Abstracts and articles are sought for an edited collection to be entitled Decentering the Anthropocene: Spanish Ecocritical Texts and the Non-Human. Ecocriticism examines literary and cultural representations of the natural environment and diverse life forms, often in the context of broader political, economic, and social issues and often with an ethical commitment to sustainability and environmental justice. In this context, ecocritical work may interrogate how texts treat anthropocentrism, or the centralization of humans’ perspectives, needs, and experiences over those of other beings.

As conversations about climate change and ecological degradation have become more urgent in the last 10-20 years, Spanish writers, directors, and artists are addressing the environment in their works with ever-increasing frequency. Scholars also have begun to take note, leading to the founding of research hubs such as GIECO (Grupo de Investigación en Ecocrítica) and the journal Ecozon@: Revista europea de literatura, cultura y medioambiente. Recent volumes in this field have considered, for example: contemporary ecocritical cultural production in the context of new materialisms; the intersection between ecology and ethics, politics, and culture in Spain from Francoism to the present day; the relationship between ecocriticism and feminism, myth, and youth literature; and ecocritical analyses of medieval literature.

This collection aims to expand critical study of representations of the environment in Spanish culture in two distinguishing manners: first, by exploring specifically the more-than-human; and second, by tracing the historical representation of these elements in Spanish works from the early-modern through the post-crisis periods. Our purpose is to highlight the central roles that the beyond-human has played in texts of all periods that counter those political, economic, and social strategies that have led to the current state of ecological devastation.

Alternate beings evoked alongside the normative human may include animals, hybrid animal- humans, plant life, ghosts, spectres, avatars, angels and apparitions, robots, cyborgs, androids, monsters, vampires, witches, and others. Likewise, ecocritical readings of the more-than-human may refer to foci such as land- and seascapes, urban, suburban and non-urban topographies, parks, tourism, waterways, natural resources, and so on.

Ecocritical studies are encouraged of any form of Spanish cultural production from general and genre fiction (crime, sci-fi, vampire, graphic, nautical, mystical) to (cyber)poetry, theater, performance art, film, photography, or other art forms. Theoretical approaches may include ecosophy, anotherness, ecofeminisms, animal studies, intersectionality, ecojustice, and others.

Interested contributors should send 300-500 word abstracts, in English, and brief biographical statements via email to the editors Maryanne Leone (maleone@assumption.edu) and Shanna

Lino (slino@yorku.ca) by September 16, 2019. Essays are to be approximately 20-25 pages long, typed double spaced, written in English, and follow the 8th edition MLA guidelines, with endnotes and a list of works cited. The editors will contact authors regarding accepted abstracts by late September. Completed articles will be due January 6, 2020.