Presenter:
This talk investigates the growing rift between environments preserved in fictional works, and the changes these same environments face in real life. How do fictional works and other cultural objects dramatize, resist, and interfere with deforestation processes and conservation initiatives? How can the perception of pristine forests in Latin American be changed into the reality of deep ecological change? This session shows how novels have inspired the development of conservationist initiatives; how they have offered counterpoints to and dialogues with modernization projects and their environmental consequences; and how environmental aspects have composed the agendas of novelists as activists, politicians, and public intellectuals.