Ken Benson – författare

Examining Latin American cultural works that rethink environmental change and natural catastrophesThis 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 Río 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 José Carlos Díaz Zanelli Andrés Obando Jasmin Belmar Shagulian Patrick Brock Gianfranco Selgas Sebastian Wiedemann Roberto Roabilnho Azucena Castro Emily Baker Montserrat Madariaga-Caro Allison Mackey

Examining Latin American cultural works that rethink environmental change and natural catastrophesThis 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 Río 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 José Carlos Díaz Zanelli Andrés Obando Jasmin Belmar Shagulian Patrick Brock Gianfranco Selgas Sebastian Wiedemann Roberto Roabilnho Azucena Castro Emily Baker Montserrat Madariaga-Caro Allison Mackey

La globalización es, sin duda alguna, uno de los pilares sobre los que se erige la cultura y la sociedad del mundo actual. Se trata de un fenómeno que, a modo de marco general, encuadra a su vez una serie de procesos que han activado de una manera concreta a las producciones culturales de todo el mundo.En ese variopinto magma de posibilidades, hemos asistido a cambios culturales promovidos por los avances tecnológicos y la digitalización, a la emergencia de nuevas formas de cosmopolitismo asociado no solo a esta incidencia de la cultura en red, sino también a la capacidad de entender el mundo desde un prisma que rompe la tradicional territorialidad fronteriza, dando pie a que se reafirme de alguna manera la existencia posible de identidades postnacionales que cohabitan con formas más conservadoras de entender la idea de nación y con ello la geopolítica mundial. La interactuación de todos estos fenómenos y su vinculación con la generación de una serie de productos culturales marcados por ellos nos ha servido de pretexto para unificar en este libro híbrido una serie de trabajos encaminados a explorar el mapa literario actual hispano que se asocia a todos estos fenómenos.En la primera parte del libro, Vicente Luis Mora completa un amplio estudio crítico de un gran número de obras vinculadas a la globalización, lo glocal, lo postnacional o lo extraterritorial. En la segunda parte, se despliegan cinco estudios analíticos encaminados a explorar una serie de obras concretas que desde su singularidad se ubican dentro del paradigma de una cultura postnacional, cosmopolita, supraterritorial y, en definitiva, global.