Aquatic Environments - (Literary Ecologies) by Bieke Willem & Rebecca Seewald (Paperback)

About the Book

Insights into the rich tradition of Latin American literature set in aquatic environments.

Book Synopsis

From pre-Columbian times till today, human interventions in aquatic environments have been shaping the geopolitics of Latin America. The contributors to this volume examine the relationship between water and politics in Latin America via readings of fiction and poetry by both renowned and upcoming writers. Through close literary analysis, they demonstrate how water functions as a medium for narrating submerged histories and for unsettling (post)colonial assumptions. The volume reveals literary strategies that make it possible to share knowledge about other ways of organizing life in aquatic environments.

About the Author

Bieke Willem is an assistant professor of Romance literature at the University of Cologne. She obtained her PhD in literature at Ghent University in Belgium (2014) and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and as an assistant professor of Latin American literature and culture at Stockholm University. Her research focuses mainly on literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, environmental humanities, affect and memory studies.

Rebecca Seewald is a research assistant of Romance literature at the University of Cologne. Previously she worked at the department of comparative literature at the University of Bonn. Her research focuses on Latin American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, studies of embodiment and memory, as well as sociological questions. She is currently working on her PhD project on violence and memory in academic settings.