SPAN 321 Toxic Matters in Latin America and the Latinx World

The course focuses on the way Latin American and Latinx writers, artists, and activists have explored the intersections of toxicity and space, time, politics affecting the region, and new modes of perception in literature, film, art, and other media. We’ll study the treatment of topics like: flows of contamination and pollution via organic and inorganic bodies, vernacular/cultural landscapes, and artworks; the unequal distribution of toxins in material and discursive worlds; natural and cultural practices in biological, textual, and visual spheres. The study of theories and concepts of sickness and health, of decay, and the legacy of colonialism and neocolonialism will contribute to showing how writers, artists, and other cultural agents develop aesthetics of toxicity, bodily experiences, and material entanglements that contribute to the exposure of environmental (in)justice and offer new, and pluriversal understandings of the world.