Posthumanism and Latin(x) American Science Fiction

by Antonio Córdoba (Editor), Emily A. Maguire (Editor)

Overview

This volume explores how Latin American and Latinx creators have engaged science fiction to explore posthumanist thought. Contributors reflect on how Latin American and Latinx speculative art conceptualizes the operations of other, non-human forms of agency, and engages in environmentalist theory in ways that are estranging and open to new forms of species companionship. Essays cover literature, film, TV shows, and music, grouped in three sections: “Posthumanist Subjects” examines Latin(x) American iterations of some of the most common figurations of the posthuman, such as the cyborg and virtual environments and selves; “Slow Violence and Environmental Threats” understands that posthumanist meditations in the hemisphere take place in a material and cultural context shaped by the catastrophic destruction of the environment; the chapters in “Posthumanist Others” shows how the reimagination of the self and the world that posthumanism offers may be an opportunity to break the hold thatoppressive systems have over the ways in which societies are constructed and governed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031117916
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	11/23/2022
Series:	Studies in Global Science Fiction
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	905 KB

About the Author

Antonio Córdoba is Associate Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at Manhattan College, USA. His main area of specialization is Latin American and Iberian science fiction. He has published ¿Extranjero en tierra extraña?: El género de la ciencia ficción en América Latina (2011) and published articles and book chapters on Latin American and Spanish science fiction and horror.
Emily A. Maguire is Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University, USA, where she specializes in literature of the Hispanic Caribbean and its diasporas. The author of Racial Experiments in Cuban Literature and Ethnography (2011; 2^nd edition, 2018), her articles have appeared in Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Small Axe, A Contracorriente, ASAP/Journal, and Revista Iberoamericana, among other places.

Table of Contents

Introduction: “Posthumanism and Speculative Aesthetics in Latin(x) American Science Fiction”.- Chapter 1. “Prosthetic Futures: Disability and Genre Self-Consciousness in Maielis González Fernández’s Sobre los nerds y otras criaturas mitológicas.” Ana Ugarte Fernández, College of the Holy Cross.- Chapter 2. “We Have Always Been Posthuman: Virtus and the Reconfiguration of the Lettered Subject.” Miguel García, Fordham University.- Chapter 3. “Does the Posthuman Actually Exist in Mexico? A Critique of the Essayistic Production on the Posthuman Written by Mexicans (2001-2007).” Stephen Tobin, UCLA.- Chapter 4. Maia Gil’Adi, “Fukú, Postapocalyptic Haunting, and Science-Fiction Embodiment in Junot Díaz’s ‘Monstro.’” Maia Gil’Adi, University of Massachusetts-Lowell.- Chapter 5. “Villa Epecuén: Slow Violence and the Posthuman Film Set.” Jonathan Risner, Indiana University.- Chapter 6. Catfish and Nanobots: Invasive Species and Eco-Critical Futures in Alejandro RojasMedina’s Chunga Maya, Samuel Ginsburg, Washington State University.- - Chapter 7. “Cyborgs in the Margins: Indigeneity in ‘El Cementerio de Elefantes,’ by Miguel Esquirol.” Liliana Colanzi, Cornell University.- Chapter 8. “Race, Performance and the Discipline of the Body in Brazil’s Dystopian Thriller 3%.” M. Elizabeth Ginway, University of Florida.- Chapter 9. “Bruja Theory: On Witches and Worldmaking.” William Orchard, Queens College of the City University of New York.- Afterword: “Posthuman Subjectivity in Latin America:  Changing the Conversation.” Silvia Kurlat Ares.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is a timely intervention into a growing debate in Latin American cultural studies. It is particularly valuable due to the geographical breadth of its scope and its attention to aesthetic strategies across a wide range of different media. Essential reading for students and scholars interested in Latin American science fiction and speculative aesthetics, posthumanism and the environmental humanities.”

—Edward King, Associate Professor, University of Bristol, UK

“This book explores for the first time Latin American posthumanism from the Global South. It is a proposal that appeals to us from the point of view of (techno)(cyber) corporealities that form the normative world-systems of globalization and offer dissident alternatives. A collection of brilliant essays that offer a melting pot of categories and typologies of science fiction, from neoliberal posthumanism to feminist critical posthumanism. A lucid reflection on inequalities based on ethnicity, class, gender, sex and sexuality. A publication of reference that shows that the heartbeat of the twenty-first century is posthuman, and that everything posthuman is political.”

—Teresa López-Pellisa, Universidad de Alcalá, Spain