CALL FOR PAPERS – EDITED VOLUME
Decentering the Anthropocene: Spanish Ecocritical Texts and the
Non-Human
Maryanne L. Leone, Assumption College, and Shanna Lino, York
University
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.