SPAN 318 Ecocritical Perspectives in Latin America and the Latinx World

The contemporary ecological crisis urges us to confront the condition of the world around us, to examine the way by which we came to understand the relationship between man and physical space, and to scrutinize the ecological implications of the metaphors that organize it into discrete categories of “culture” and “environment.” The study of texts, art, and activism from marginalized environmental perspectives (indigenous, Afro-Latinx/e/Latin American, women, LGBTQI+ communities) evidences various strands of environmental thought and critique—recognizable today as extractivism, feminisms from the South, eco-feminism, Amerindian ontologies, among others—present in different forms since the region was envisioned as an Edenic “New World” until today. Through the study of literature, drama, film, and various radical counter-discursive, indigenous and hybrid artistic practices in Latin America and the Latinx world, the course fosters thinking and living in community with non-Eurocentric social and human values. These vital corpus from Latin America and the Latinx world will offer the opportunity to explore and reflect about multiple perspectives on environmental justice, law and ecology, and environmental action/engagement. With opened horizons and visions, we will engage in learning with, and from, the Latinx/a/o community in Memphis through engaged learning projects.