Workshop | Aesthetics of Extractivism in Latin America: When Marked Bodies Talk
Latin America is a region historically characterized by the violence of Colonialism and Extractivism on its territories and their human and non-human inhabitants. Its literature and cinema have continually shifted in its relationship to this violence: actively denouncing or even endorsing it in public discourse; bearing witness to the destruction of its ‘pluriversos’ (Escobar); and expanding aesthetic boundaries beyond European conventions. The colonial violence that constructed the white man as a universal reference also inscribed others as “marked bodies.” Not only human and non-human bodies but this violence has scarred the territory itself, dismembering its water bodies, displacing beings from their forests and coastlines, hollowing out its “Cordilleras” and “Geraes,” and engraving national borders and monolingual norms imposed by alien civilizations. However, twentieth- and twenty-first-century literatures have begun to position these marked bodies not anymore as mere landscape elements or objectified characters but as narrative subjects, with distinct positionalities and/or fictional perspectives. Both human and non-human entities have started to narrate their own (hi)stories, creating a counterpoint to Anthropocentrism, Colonialism, and their extractive gaze (Gómez-Barris). These narratives also propose alternative philosophies of history (Oswald de Andrade), in which diverse cosmovisions, epistemologies, and political ontologies (De La Cadena) suggest alternatives to the ecocidal paradigm of the Anthropocene. How can we avoid (post-)apocalyptic scenarios and the multiple “ends of the world” (Krenak; Viveiros de Castro & Danowski)? The workshop offers examples of modern and contemporary writing and audiovisual practices in Latin America artworlds – understood beyond the fiction-nonfiction divide – that engage with the coloniality of (neo)extractivism in its territories. These works address both traditional forms of exploitation, such as (mega)mining and plantation economies, and newer demands for “green energy,” cultural and epistemic extractivism. By bearing witness to these catastrophes, they propose alternative perspectives on neo-developmentalism, rooted in the experiences of marked human and non-human bodies.
Beitragende:
Dr. Tomaz Amorim (Mecila / Universität São Paulo)
Dr. Jörn Etzold (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
Dr. Cecilia Gil Mariño (CONICET / Universität zu Köln)
Dr. Fernando Nina (Universität Heidelberg)
Eingeladene Künstlerin:
Dr. Carola Saavedra liest Auszüge aus ihrem Roman “O manto da noite” (2022)
Ort & Zeit: Bibliothek Erich Auerbach Institut, Weyertal 59 (Rückgebäude, 3. OG), 50937 Köln |
Mittwoch, 11.12.2024 | 14:00 - 16:30 Uhr