Yilin Wang
(UCL) -
2024-25 Students
uclzaao@ucl.ac.uk
Toward Symbiosis: Representing Animals and Human-Nonhuman Relations in Contemporary Latin American Literature
My AHRC-funded research explores the representation of animals and human-nonhuman relations in contemporary Latin American literature with a focus on comparing and contrasting the works in 1950s–80s with the ones in 2000s–10s. The consideration of animals and their entanglements with humans has been an ongoing subject of critical discussion for scholars from different academic backgrounds. Drawing from pivotal theories in critical animal studies, my research sets out as a comparative ecological study which analyses how the depictions of animals and interspecies relations between two periods vary as they reflect and respond to the dynamic social and political realities of their times. In this manner, this research brings a timely interdisciplinary contribution to the study of animal writing in the contemporary Latin American context as it rereads and reinterprets a series of fables, novels and short stories from a posthuman theoretical perspective, highlighting the differences and developments in portraying a close but ambiguous cross-species community. Taking into account the debates about the Anthropocene and in recognising the innovative understanding of animals, humans and interspecies relationships provided by contemporary Latin American literature, this research sheds light on the power and significance of writing in demonstrating and encouraging an equal and symbiotic relationship between human and nonhuman species. Primary Supervisor: Dr Emily Baker |