The use and abuse of fossil fuels—carbon, oil, gas—as an energy source have played a fundamental role in the construction of modern societies and the subsequent environmental and climate breakdown that have resulted. Sustained by its inextricable relationship with capitalism as the system organizing our social and environmental relations, fossil capital has enabled the functioning of virtually all indices and practices of modernity.1 From the transnational mobility and circulation of people and products to logistics, infrastructures, and the geopolitical conflicts that have taken shape over the past two centuries, fossil fuels have been essential to the materialization of liberal democracy and ideas of progress. The hegemonic narrative that defines modern progress as the combination of expanding human rights, liberal freedoms, scientific and technological innovations, and the rise of the capitalist industrial economy cannot be fully comprehended without recognizing fossil capital’s essential role in constructing the materials and infrastructures of everyday life, as well as in shaping our social habits, values, and cultural imaginaries.2

This dissertation reframes Latin American literary regionalism as the configuration of an alternative political-cultural reaction in the 1930s-1940s. It argues that such an approach questions the precepts of Eurocentric modernity, going beyond the nuanced conceptualization of the environment as a nature-culture dichotomy. Although this dichotomy has been critically associated with literary regionalism as an autochthonous, exotic, and transcultural genre, the study analyzes the use of language’s rhetorical and discursive constructions as a starting point to conceptualize and theorize socio-ecological relations, world-ecology, and the projection of regionalist literature on history, the economy, and biology. This stance highlights discursive assemblages between human, mineral, and vegetal forms in fictional and non-fictional texts to propose the dissolution of dichotomic parameters entrenched in critical approaches to regionalism. Moreover, this reading understands that literature reflects on cultural, historical, and political processes and forms a part of them.

Departing from a Latin Americanist ecocritical, new materialist, and posthuman theoretical and methodological approach, the dissertation analyzes discursive, socio-ecological assemblages configured by a selection of understudied novels, essays, press articles, and scientific texts published between 1930-1940 by Venezuelan Enrique Bernardo Núñez, Costa Rican Carmen Lyra, and Colombian César Uribe Piedrahita. After the introductory chapter and theoretical discussion, the analysis chapters emphasize the configuration of the discursive assemblages articulated in the works of these three authors. Chapter 2 examines the novel Cubagua (1931) and the essay Una ojeada al mapa de Venezuela (1939), by Núñez. It focuses on the discursive assemblages between human beings, extracted raw materials such as oil, pearls, and gold, and plant organisms in Venezuela. The chapter analyzes the symbiotic and vibrant relationship between materialities based on what I define as ‘trance extractivo.’ Chapter 3 analyzes the chronicle Bananos y hombres (1931) and the pamphlet El grano de oro y el peón (1933), by Lyra. The analysis shows how language assembles the literary representation of laborers, bananas, and coffee grains. I define this assemblage in Costa Rican monoculture plantations as ‘extractivismo vascularizado.’ Chapter 4 explores the novel Toá: narraciones de caucherías (1933) and the medical paper Esquema para un estudio de la patología indígena en Colombia (1940), by Uribe Piedrahita. The chapter shows how these works fluctuate between literary and hygienic discourses to become the historical, aesthetic, and political articulation of latex extraction in Colombia. Observing a discursive shift from a western-medical discourse to a speculative one, I define the discursive assemblage as ‘semiosis de la extracción.’

The dissertation concludes that the selected materials are representative of another configuration of literary regionalism, a scriptural mode I term Assembled Regionalism. This is understood as the discursive configuration of socio-ecological assemblages between writing and different extractive practices on Latin American soil, contesting the nature-culture divide. The study reframes regionalism by incorporating Núñez, Lyra, and Uribe Piedrahita’s political-cultural reactions related to the tensions between modernization and the environment in the 1930s-1940s.

En este ensayo, propongo leer la configuraciónde lo que describo como ‘regionalismo orgánico’ en la novela Catálogo de formas (2014), del escritor argentino-mexicano Nicolás Cabral. Desarrollo la noción de ‘regionalismo orgánico’ tomando como punto de partida los ensayos sobre arquitectura organicista del pintor y arquitecto mexicano Juan O’Gorman(1905-1982). Argumento que a través de sus ensayos y su práctica artístico-arquitectónica, O’Gorman propuso una visión simbiótica entre naturaleza y cultura, crítica de los preceptos euromodernos y capitalistas que son recuperados tanto temática como formalmente en la novela de Cabral. A diferencia delos estudios que leen Catálogo de formas como una obra metatextual con la de O’Gorman, señalo que, leída como expresión del ‘regionalismo orgánico’, la novela tematiza y formaliza las relaciones orgánicas entre humanidad y naturaleza con los efectos de las prácticas extractivistas como fondo espaciotemporal.

In this essay, I propose to read the configuration of what I describe as ‘organic regionalism’ in the novel Catálogo de formas (2014), by Argentine-Mexican writer Nicolás Cabral. I develop the notion of ‘organic regionalism’ taking as a starting point the essays on organicist architecture by Mexican painter and architect Juan O’Gorman (1905-1982). I argue that through his essays and his artistic-architectural practice, O’Gormanproposed a symbiotic vision between nature and culture, critical of the Euromodern and capitalist precepts that are recovered both thematically and formally in Cabral’s novel. In contrast to studies that read Catálogo de formas as a metatextual work with O’Gorman’s, I point out that, read as an expression of organic regionalism’, the novel thematizes and formalizes the organic relations between humanity and nature with the effects of extractivist practices as a spatio-temporal background.

El objetivo del presente artículo es poner a dialogar los ensayos Últimas noticias dela escritura (Chejfec, 2015) y Maniobras elementales (Echeto, 2016) como ejemplos de unaestética transgenérico textual y transmedial que se inserta en las tensiones entre distintosregímenes de expresión artística (Rancière, 2014). Más concretamente, me interesa notar cómoestas obras pueden resultar paradigmáticas a la hora de hablar sobre transliteraturaslatinoamericanas en tanto proponen, entre otras cosas, una estética de laboratorio (Laddaga,2010), donde la generación de conocimientos y experiencias se traducen en la confluencia deactantes y soportes. De este modo, el artículo busca estudiar una serie de dinámicas y estrategiastransgenérico textuales y transmediales en los ensayos de Sergio Chejfec y Roberto Echeto paraaproximarse al entrecruzamiento y coexistencia de elementos disimiles en sus textos, así comotambién interpretar el diálogo que entablan, dentro de sus páginas, con obras de distintosgéneros, medios y soportes. Finalmente, sostendré que esta noción trans en los textos de Chejfecy Echeto habilita además una política de la literatura (Rancière, 2011) que configura nuevasdistribuciones de lo sensible al tiempo que rediscute la literatura y su actualidad estética.

Cet article a pour objectif de mettre en regard les essais Últimas noticias de laescritura (Chejfec, 2015) et Maniobras elementales (Echeto, 2016), exemples d’esthétique detransgénéricité textuelle et de transmédialité. Cette esthétique s’introduit dans les tensions desrégimes d’expressions artistiques (Rancière, 2014). Je suis interpelé, plus précisément, par lamanière dont les ouvrages susnommés peuvent s’inscrire de façon paradigmatique dans lesTransLittératures d’Amérique Latine, puisqu’ils proposent, entre autres, une esthétique de 

laboratoire (Laddaga, 2010), où la génération de connaissances et d'expériences se traduit par larencontre d'actants et de supports. C’est pourquoi l’article vise, d’une part, à étudier une série dedynamiques et de stratégies transgénériques textuelles et transmédia dans les essais de SergioChejfec et de Roberto Echeto, afin de se rapprocher d’un entrecroisement et d’une coexistencedes différents éléments figurant dans leurs textes. Et d’autre part, à interpréter le dialogue qu’ilsy engagent à l’aide d’ouvrages de différents types, genres et supports. Enfin, j’affirmerai que,dans les textes de Chejfec et Echeto, la notion de trans permet aussi une politique de la littérature(Rancière, 2011) qui reconfigure le partage du sensible tout en rediscutant la littérature et sonactualité esthétique.

The characterization of Venezuela as a petrostate has been instrumental in its historical configuration as a nation unable to achieve modernity. The span of Venezuela’s intrinsic relationship with oil has had an impact on the country’s economic and political spectrum and has also resulted in a set of effects and affects relating to the social history of Venezuela. This article analyses how the documentaries Pozo muerto (Rebolledo, 1968) and Mayami nuestro (Oteyza, 1981) represent oil as amnemonic instrument that chronicles Venezuela’s socio-economic ruin. To achieve this, the notion of memory is addressed as a plastic temporal operation, paying special attention to the subject–object articulation in both films. Produced during the 1960s and 1980s, these films record the socio-economic and political crossroads of a country for which oil has been the tool used to trace the mnemonic geography of its predictable debacle.

En este artículo no me propongo analizar rasgos concretos de la instalación audiovisual-multimedia Imagen de Caracas, sino tomarla como índice de algo posible o nuevo. Mi argumentación es que Imagen de Caracas puede interpretarse como una forma especulativa donde, por medio de la integración de formas plásticas y artísticas, la correspondencia entre arte y comunidad puede ser indicativa de una función emancipadora. Esta función no es aislada: el momento de su emergencia coincide con una serie de eventos artísticos tanto en Venezuela como en el resto de América Latina que persiguieron articulaciones entre lo estético y lo político. Enmarcado en este devenir, Imagen de Caracas se erige como espejo crítico de la ciudad de Caracas y su gente, y en esa reflexión de una ciudad que se mira a sí misma alojó, en su intento por mostrar desde adentro el afuera, el germen emancipatorio delos espacios y los espectadores.

Specular Caracas: emancipated spectatorsand spaces in the audiovisual installation Imagen de Caracas

In this article I want to go beyond the analysis of concrete features in the multimedia installation Imagen de Caracas. My aim is to take the installation as an index of something possible or new. My argument is that Imagen de Caracas can be interpreted as a speculative form in which, through the integration of plastic and artistic forms, the correspondence between art and community can be indicative of an emancipating function. This function is not isolated: the moment of its emergence coincides with a series of artistic events in both Venezuela and the rest of Latin America that pursue an articulation between aesthetics and politics. Framed in this context, Imagen de Caracas raises a critical mirror reflecting the city of Caracas and its people. In that reflection of a city that looks at itself, Imagen de Caracas attempts to show the emancipatory germ of spaces and spectators.

In this essay my purpose is to rehearse a reading of María Negroni's Elegía Joseph Cornell as a dissenting cultural product. My argument will be that Negroni's text sets in motion a discussion of the center of literary meaning and value. Such discussion is enacted by taking the textual interpretation beyond the realm of the written word, integrating visual images as well as formal transgressions on the page, thus turning the book into a hybrid assemblage or aesthetic device. In this manner, Elegía… opens up a marginal space that contests textual experience. I will try to answer the following question: In what manner does the convergence of visuality and agency in Elegía… challenge the center of literary meaning and value? Finally, I will conclude that Elegía…'s dissenting quality makes it a paradigmatic cultural product produced in the realm of time-space concretion, where the continual rearrangements of meaning and value call for new vocabularies to trace the effects of the politics of contemporary literature.

En este artículo se pretende analizar cómo los textos de los venezolanos Celeste Olalquiaga, Yolanda Pantin y Arturo Uslar Pietri, cada uno producido en diferentes etapas históricas del país, convienen la representación del espacio como una imagen textual. Esta representación del espacio como imagen textual retrata su contemporaneidad y da cabida a una serie de efectos que van desde la memoria y la configuración histórica de la ciudad, hasta la sugerencia de nuevos modos de ver y sentir en un espacio dado. Para dar respuesta a esta hipótesis se propone estudiar el corpus articulando aspectos teóricos sobre lo visible y lo enunciable (Jacques Rancière), y la idea de la generación de imágenes a partir de la textualidad del relato o el poema (Luz Horne). Se partirá de estas aproximaciones teóricas para argumentar que los textos analizados, valiéndose de una remediación del Realismo, convienen el espacio como una imagen que intenta tanto retratar lo contemporáneo como condensar en lo imaginario los afectos que induce un espacio determinado como la ciudad de Caracas.

Caracas’ Variations: Space as Textual-Image in Celeste Olalquiaga, Yolanda Pantin and Arturo Uslar Pietri

The purpose of this article is to analyze how a selection of texts by Venezuelan authors Celeste Olalquiaga, Yolanda Pantin and Arturo Uslar Pietri, each produced in different historical stages of Venezuela, represent space as a textual-image. This representation of space as a textual-image portrays both its contemporaneity and a series of effects that stem from memory and the historical configuration of the city, to the suggestion of new ways of seeing and feeling at a given space. To answer this hypothesis, the corpus will be analyzed by articulating theoretical aspects of the visible and the enunciable (Jacques Rancière), and the idea of the generation of images based on the text’s textuality (Luz Horne). Taking these theoretical approaches as a starting point, it will be argued that by remediating Realism the study corpus conveys space as an image that both portrays its contemporaneity, and seeks to condense the affects induced by a determinate space such as the city of Caracas.