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Evento

Mesa de trabajo (working session groups)

Título:

Fictional political ecologies through audiovisual, stage and literary narratives

Coordina:

Lucía Argüelles, María Heras

Fecha y hora:

23/10/2023 | 16:00 - 18:00

Lugar:

Sala E, Área de Investigación, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, CU-UNAM

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Detalles:

Nota: Si su resumen no se encuentra en el programa, por favor envíelo a cigc2023@gmail.com indicando nombre, apellido y título de ponencia.



El paisaje y el territorio a través de la novela policiaca
Armando Garcia

Resumen

El uso de las artes para analizar lo geográfico, se inscribe dentro de una serie de cambios en el pensamiento geográfico, iniciados en las dos últimas décadas del siglo XX donde destaca la reconsideración del papel y la significancia del espacio en la teoría social y en los procesos sociales; el surgimiento sin precedentes de la investigación dedicada a la relación entre espacio y sociedad; el reingreso de la geografía humana a las corrientes principales de la ciencia social y la filosofía; la renovada apreciación de la diversidad y de la diferencia con una consecuente diversificación del trabajo teorético y empírico y un cuestionamiento de las relaciones entre conocimiento geográfico y acción social que dan lugar a una gran proliferación de tópicos de investigación (Dear, 2001). En cuanto a la relación de la ecología política con las artes, conviene argumentar que al ser un campo que incluye las múltiples formas de acción colectiva en torno a conflictos ambientales y territoriales, las diferentes expresiones artísticas como la pintura, el cine, el video (Merlinsky y Serafini, 2020) y, en el caso específico de este trabajo, la literatura, son parte consustancial del mismo. Por otra parte, para poder inscribir este trabajo dentro de una temática que aborda la ficción realista y la ecología política, es necesario aclarar que en su abordaje se ha considerado que se pueden distinguir dos tradiciones teóricas sobre el extractivismo: la tradición dependentista y de raíz latinoamericana, que agrupa el concepto de extractivismo como modo de apropiación de los recursos naturales, estrategia de desarrollo dependiente y estilo de desarrollo insostenible; y la tradición propiamente extractivista, de dominante norteamericana y europea, que identifica el extractivismo con los procesos continuos de acumulación por desposesión/apropiación del capitalismo (Domínguez Martín, 2021). En este contexto para poder utilizar la literatura como fuente de información geográfica conviene apuntar que el encuentro entre los movimientos artísticos y las resistencias al extractivismo da cuenta de una significación común que refiere a entender el arte y practicar la política como la creación de nuevos conceptos de vida. En ese sentido conviene citar tres aspectos en los que el arte se relaciona con la ecología política y con los movimientos y organizaciones que le son esenciales. En primer lugar, el arte es un vehículo importante en la creación de narrativas. Las narrativas que se generan alrededor de aquello que es objeto de oposición, los objetivos colectivos y la forma de generar cambio tienen un rol crucial en la manera en que los movimientos y organizaciones se representan a sí mismos, tanto internamente como externamente. En segundo lugar, las prácticas artísticas –y en particular aquellas de carácter comunitario y participativo– son importantes para la creación y el mantenimiento de las identidades colectivas. La última, y quizás más importante, manera en que el arte contribuye a la acción colectiva, es a través de su potencial para activar la imaginación. En el estudio de los movimientos sociales y formas de acción colectiva recientes se popularizó el concepto de prefiguración, tanto en su dimensión ética como en su carácter de práctica social. En resumen, es posible decir que las artes, en general, y la literatura, en particular son un vehículo en la creación de narrativas que crean una identidad colectiva y que permiten activar la imaginación. En este trabajo se utiliza la novela policiaca, la cual, es una literatura realista que fue considerada durante un largo período como una literatura de segunda clase. En ella, existe una relación primaria con el territorio y el paisaje que surge del uso de la cartografía como producto de la obra a través de la cual se puede completar una imagen geográfica detallada, al mismo tiempo que puede identificarse el papel del espacio geográfico en la obra, rol que puede ir desde un simple escenario donde actúan los personajes o bien ser el protagonista central de la misma. Ahora bien, es precisamente este espacio geográfico el punto de partida que utilizan los autores para hacer una crítica del sistema capitalista imperante desde una narrativa fictiva. Bibliografía Berque, Augustin (1998), Être humains sur la terre, Gallimard/Le débat, Paris. Carreras, Carles, (1988), El uso de los textos literarios en geografía. en García B, A. (coordinadora) Métodos y técnicas cualitativas en geografía social. Editorial Oikos-Tau. Barcelona. Collot, Michel, (2014), Pour une géographie littéraire, Corti, Paris. Dear, Michael (2001), “The Postmodern Turn”. en Minca, C., (Editor), Postmodern Geography : Theory and Praxis, Blackwell Publisher Ltd., Oxford, 2001, pp. 10-24. Domínguez Martín, Rafael, El extractivismo y sus despliegues activismo y sus despliegues conceptuales, Revista Territorios y Regionalismos, núm. 4, pp. 1-26, 2021, Universidad de Concepción García Chiang. Armando (2004), Ciudad y novela policiaca, Revista Ciudades, No. 72 Vida urbana y narrativas literarias, pp. 22-28. Merlinsky Gabriela y Paula Serafini (Compiladoras) (2020) Arte y Ecología Política, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani – UBA. Roas, David « ¿Por qué leemos (todavía) novelas policiacas? » en Quimera nº 259-260, julio-agosto 2005. En línea http://esquimal.ucoz.com/publ/literatura/por_que_leemos_todavia_novelas_policiacas/1-1-0-33 (Consultado el 26/11/2022). Salter, Christopher L. y Lloyd, William J. (1989) Landscape in Literature, Ressource Papers for College Geography, No. 76-3, Washington D.C., Association of American Geographers. Westphal, Bertrand (2007) La Géocritique. Réel, fiction, espace, Paris, Minuit.



The experiences and the semantics of space and time in Octavia E. Butler and Ursula K. LeGuin: criticism beyond catastrophism
Aurea Mota, Natàlia Cantó Milà

Resumen

Keywords (3-5): time, space, experience, future, imaginaries. Abstract: Literature expresses the ways in which different people from different societal
configurations feel the world as well as mobilise and portray these feelings into written language. Paraphrasing Westphal’s words, all forms of human interaction with the world are somehow expressed in a literary form (Westphal, 2011). Literature, following this approach, becomes a way of wording the world. And from this perspective it has captured the attention of historians and sociologists, who have analysed cultural productions in
general and literature in particular, giving special attention to the contexts in which these cultural productions have been produced and reproduced. However, little attention has been paid to the ways in which literature deals with and reflects the authors’ and their contemporaries' temporal and spatial experiences. In this particular paper we intend to focus on the imaginaries of time and space that are mobilised within novels, hence within the fictional texts that, beyond displaying a plot and sharing with the readers the characters’ adventures and misadventures, set a time and a space, as well as temporal and spatial imaginaries linked to the concrete sceneries and timescapes in which the plot unfolds. In this paper we will unveil these temporal and spatial imaginaries, and link them to our main hypothesis. To develop this hypothesis, we will analyse two novels of the last decades of the twentieth century: The Dispossessed by Ursula K.LeGuin (1974) and Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia E. Butler. The central hypothesis of our contribution claims that the twentieth century has witnessed an important transition in relation to social imaginaries of time and space. This transition
can also be traced in and through cultural products, and, as it is our case, in literature. We argue that as the past century began, imaginaries of time and space were still mainly embedded within the openness of the paradigm of the Neuzeit (modernity), which Koselleck depicted as the historical context in which the future became an open space upon which projects could be projected (pun intended), and the expectation of a better future became detached from the immediate experiences of the present and the lived past. Furthermore, it was embedded within an Eurocentric and imperialist imaginary of space, which saw the lands beyond Europe and North America as an open space which offered the unquestioned possibility of expansion, of mobility and displacement as a chance. A spatial view of the world in which there were still lands to be discovered, dominated and even conquered. Hence, as Simmel had depicted in Philosophy of Money Early twentieth century novels, such as Stefan Zweig’s (1881-1942) Brazil, Land of the Future (1941), express the meaning of this modern semantic of historical time in which the horizon of expectation diverged from the past experiences. Even though largely ignored in the analysis of the transformation of the semantics of time in literature, this novel is a paradigmatic example of the way in which the Neuzeit semantics of ‘open’ time became strongly associated with the emergence of a new semantics of ‘open’ space. Unlike in early twentieth century novels, in the last decades of the twentieth century, a new semantics of historical space began to emerge in which the future became uncertain, and different past experiences with space, place and soil became revalued as something to be recuperated at the present for the sake of the future. These imaginaries which we now (2023) encounter as growing strong in everyday life imaginaries began crystallising in literary landscapes and timescapes during the last decades of the twentieth century.
References
Butler, O.E. (1993) Parable of the Sower, London: Headline Publishing.
Koselleck, R. (1983) Futures Past: on the semantics of historical time, New York:
Columbia University Press.
Le Guin, U. K. (1974) The dispossessed : an ambiguous utopia (First), New York: Harper
& Row.
Simmel G. Rammstedt O. Frisby D. P. & Köhnke Klaus Christian (2017) Gesamtausgabe
in 24 Bänden : Band 6: Philosophie des Geldes, Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Westphal, B. (2011) Geocriticism: real and fictional spaces, New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.



Scenarios and the socio-ecological imagination: Using academic science fiction to envision new socio-ecological arrangements
Joshua Hurtado Hurtado

Resumen

Key words: Degrowth, Deurbanisation, Latin America, socio-ecological imagination, challenging utopias. Abstract: Science fiction and speculative narratives offer an entry point to examine and re-imagine the foundations underlying current societal arrangements. Similar to realistic fiction, science fiction offers entry points for examining alternative life worlds and life stories distant to our own experiences. Both realistic fiction and science fiction may similarly generate resonant affects for its audience, stimulating collective critique and action. Science fiction, however, goes beyond realistic fiction by depicting societal arrangements that seem far from possible under current circumstances. For example, Kallis and March (2015) note that fictional works can subvert imaginaries based on accumulation and growth by positioning alternative visions as utopian. They illustrate it with Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, which portrays the territory of Anarres as utopian: at first glance, Anarres could be considered post-apocalyptic and harsh, but in reality, depicts other forms of abundance, like being liberated from work and having access to basic resources needed for survival. Moreover, Merrie et al. (2018) propose that developing scenarios using science fiction principles can make foreseen societal changes more accessible and interesting to general audiences, thereby facilitating the design of governance mechanisms and prompting collective action. Echoing this, recent research has emphasised storytelling as increasingly central for grasping and prompting sustainability transitions and new human-nature relations (Harris, 2022; Miller et al., 2015). In line with this, I have developed an academic science fiction narrative scenario called The Degrowth Transition in Latin America: Deurbanised, Autonomous City-States in 2122—An Invitation (Hurtado Hurtado, 2023) that narrates how ideas from degrowth (Heikkurinen et al., 2019; Kallis, 2017) and the deurbanisation movement (Sadri and Zeybekoglu, 2018) could manifest in socio-political practice in the Latin American context, particularly at the national level and in urban areas. In contrast to indigenous science fiction that emphasises transformational change from a decolonial perspective (Whyte, 2018), in this scenario I emphasise how strong sustainability ideas originating from outside Latin America can nevertheless be relevant in imagining sustainability transitions in Latin American societies. The transition would move away from nation-states reliant on extractive practices and gripped by the idea of development to smaller societies that create conditions for symbiotic nature-cultures to flourish. The proposed relevance of the degrowth and deurbanisation currents resides in the fact that nation-states and cities have reached their current state by following paths based on extraction, exploitation and unsustainable production and consumption, and currents that acknowledge this fact are better positioned for discussing actions at these scales and sites. In this contribution, I present the aforementioned academic science fiction scenario and discuss its relevance for imagining new societies that could emerge from the collapse of the current, unsustainable ones. The scenario presents the macro-level socio-political changes that Latin America would undergo (for example, the rise of the so-called “Green States” trying to implement sustainability policies, their failure, and the dissolution of nation-states). It complements these changes with a narration of the planetary sustainability crises, and how these affect the outlined socio-political changes. I argue that the academic science fiction approach to The Degrowth Transition in Latin America scenario helps emphasise political tensions, contingencies, and non-linear change, aspects often not explicitly discussed in scenarios of a normative orientation. Similarly, the eventual conclusion of the narrative suggests that societies may evolve through different pathways. Some societies may retain their current nation-state form and continue to deal with the governance challenges this form of political organisation entails. Others may disintegrate and reconstitute themselves in new, more manageable forms based on symbiotic nature-cultures and indigenous knowledges, but this does not liberate them from their own unique set of challenges. In depicting plural pathways for the evolution of Latin American societies and their eventual end-state of 2122, the scenario The Degrowth Transition in Latin America can cultivate socio-ecological imagination by questioning the dominant imaginaries of socio-ecological relations (e.g., ‘nature as resources’) and envisioning radical diversions that can emerge from contexts of worsened societal crises (Herbert, 2021). At the same time, it offers a glimpse into how a desirable socio-ecological future can be found in the seeds of a concealed present — in the worldviews and practices of indigenous groups that reject extractive logics and cultivate mutually-nurturing relationships with non-human nature. The depiction of ongoing societal challenges in 2122 also offers a glimpse of ‘challenging utopias’: societies that have liberated themselves from current extractive, exploitative structures, but which nonetheless face obstacles that require the knowledge and benefits derived from modernity to be successfully dealt with.
References Harris LM (2022) Towards enriched narrative political ecologies. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 5(2): 835–860.
Heikkurinen P, Lozanoska J and Tosi P (2019) Activities of degrowth and political change. Journal of Cleaner Production 211. Elsevier Ltd: 555–565.
Herbert J (2021) The socio‐ecological imagination: Young environmental activists constructing transformation in an era of crisis. Area 53: 273–380.
Hurtado Hurtado J (2023) The Degrowth Transition in Latin America: Deurbanised, Autonomous City-States in 2122—An Invitation. In: Horn L, Mert A, and Müller F (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Politics in the 22nd Century. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 255–270.
Kallis G (2017) In Defense of Degrowth: Opinions and Manifestos. Uneven Earth Press.
Kallis G and March H (2015) Imaginaries of Hope: The Utopianism of Degrowth. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 105(2): 360–368.
Merrie A, Keys P, Metian M, et al. (2018) Radical ocean futures-scenario development using science fiction prototyping. Futures 95: 22–32.

Miller CA, O’Leary J, Graffy E, et al. (2015) Narrative futures and the governance of energy transitions. Futures 70:
65–74.
Sadri H and Zeybekoglu S (2018) Deurbanization and the right to the deurbanized city. ANDULI, Revista Andaluza
de Ciencias Sociales 17: 205–219.
Whyte KP (2018) Indigenous science (fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral dystopias and fantasies of climate
change crises. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 1(1–2): 224–242.



Naturaleza y sociedad en la novela de Patricia Martínez Huchim
Alvaro Martínez

Resumen

Palabras clave: literatura maya, literatura indígena, presencia, geografía cultural
Los escritores de novela en maya yucateco mantienen vigente una preocupación que se caracteriza, de acuerdo a los planteamientos sobre literatura indígena de Ana Matías Rendón, por la preservación de valores y elementos culturales, la defensa de la identidad y la representación de conocimientos y dinámicas de los pueblos; pero, al mismo tiempo, algunos autores han añadido valor a sus textos mediante la incorporación de estrategias literarias que evidencian una inclinación hacia la escritura de creación. La poética de Patricia Martínez Huchim puede ubicarse en este cruzamiento cuando se habla de U k'a'asajil u ts'u' noj k'áax (Recuerdos del corazón de la montaña). Además de lo anterior, en el texto de Martínez Huchim resulta innegable notar el tipo de relación que se establece entre relato, naturaleza y sociedad. La narración se ubica en los tiempos de extracción de chicle en la península de Yucatán y se centra en doña xTuux, figura que opera como receptáculo de los testimonios de mujeres que tuvieron contacto con la actividad económica mencionada que fueron recogidos mediante trabajo de investigación y reelaborados por la autora con el propósito de formar una novela fragmentaria. Junto a la narración tienen sitio cuatro cantos que aportan contexto a la lectura y que también cumplen con el objeto de ser prólogo y epílogo, puesto que integran elementos naturales del k'áax (monte, montaña) vinculados a la chiclería y a la dinámica social sostenida en los campos de extracción. La presente propuesta busca mostrar los aspectos esenciales de una poética en la que se vinculan discurso literario, entorno natural y entorno social, tomando en cuenta las consideraciones hechas por Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht en cuanto a la presencia como una relación espacial con el mundo de los objetos, es decir, con todo aquello que puede tener un impacto en el cuerpo humano, la naturaleza; de igual modo, esta aproximación se produce a partir de la oscilación entre efectos de presencia y efectos de significado, entre análisis de entorno y análisis discursivo. Cuestiones que son cercanas a la geografía cultural en la que se afirma que todo espacio es producto de fenómenos de la naturaleza como de la actividad de grupos sociales, según Federico Fernández Christlieb.



Sonic fictions through sonification: a journey into the unheard worlds of human and more-than-human natures
Arnim Scheidel

Resumen

“Sonic fictions through sonification: a journey into the unheard worlds of human and more-than-human natures” is a short audio intervention that explores the role of sounds and the method of sonification for narrating fictional political ecologies. Sonification refers to the process of making data hearable through sounds. This enables listeners to perceive environmental phenomena in acoustic terms, and to translate acoustic phenomena outside the human hearing range (e.g. sounds of bats, whales, electric cars) into audible sounds. This intervention creates a short sonic fiction (ca. 3 min.) based on three different techniques of sonification: conventional recordings, octave shifting, and electro-acoustic recording, which are composed together in an aesthetic narrative. The resulting soundscapes offer a journey into the hidden worlds of the sonic environment, which although cannot be heard by humans, are fundamentally shaped by them. Listeners can get closer to the unheard worlds of more-than-human natures and the built environment surrounding them.