© Christina Lembrecht
© Christina Lembrecht

Writing the Post-Global in Latin America: Collapse and Conviviality

Internationaler Workshop an der Universität zu Köln, 29. und 30. Juni 2022

Latin American literatures in the 21st century are marked by the increasing exhaustion of the global project. New concepts reflecting this process are urgently needed, as the dark sides and asymmetries of the worldwide network connecting societies, economies and cultures have become ever more apparent. The discourses of comprehensive global integration that prevailed after 1989 have therefore been reinterpreted. In this context, post-globality does not refer to the overcoming of worldwide networking and integration, but rather constitutes a critical framework that allows us to understand the problematic economic, ecological, social, and technological dimensions of the current phase of globalisation. At the same time, it also permits us to reflect on new forms of world creation. The conference proposes to explore the plurality of the post-global experience by analysing the tension between the concepts of collapse and conviviality: while representations of collapse emphasise the vulnerability of natural and social systems, conviviality is directed towards the possibility of living together in difference.

29. Juni 2022

The Globalized in Post-Global Times: Markets, Circulation, and Resistance

09.30-09.50: Gustavo Guerrero (Paris Cergy-Pontoise): “Post- autonomía y post-compromiso, un debate inacabado?”

09.50-10.10: Gloria Chicote (UNLP-Conicet/Mecila): “Post global y popular: intersecciones posibles en la literatura latinoamericana”

10.10-10.30: Gesine Müller (Cologne): “World Creation between Collapse and Conviviality. Fernanda Trías y Edmundo Paz Soldán”

10.30-11.00: Discussion

11.00-11.30: Break

After the End: Living Together in Collapsing Worlds (I)

11.30-11.50: Robert Folger (Heidelberg): “The new realism(s), the ontological quality of (post)apocalyptic narratives, and the persistence of eurocentrist epistemological hegemony”

11.50-12.10: Jorge Locane (Oslo): “Formas del después. A propósito de Tejer la oscuridad, de Emiliano Monge”

12.10-12.30: Jan Knobloch (Cologne): “Lo que el fuego me trajo. Cancelled Futures and New Beginnings in the Work of Adrián Villar Rojas”

12.30-13.00: Discussion

13.00-14.30: Lunch

After the End: Living Together in Collapsing Worlds (II)

14.30-14.50: Ilse Logie (Ghent): “Matate, amor de Ariana Harwicz y El huésped de Guadalupe Nettel: ¿fábulas del colapso o de la reconfiguración social?”

14.50-15.10: Carlos Fonseca Grigsby (Oxford/Cologne): “Convivencia y colapso en la literatura centroamericana”

15.10-15.30: Héctor Hoyos (Stanford): “García Márquez and the Global Rule of Law”

15.30-16.00: Discussion

16.00-16.30: Break

Making Kin in the Ruins: Animals and Inter-Species Conviviality

16.30-16.50: Sophie Esch (Rice University): “Bonding in the Late Anthropocene: Collapse and Conviviality in Claudia Hernández”

16.50-17.10: Jörg Dünne (HU Berlin/Mecila): “Convivialidades interespecíficas: quiltros chilenos y literatura post-global”

17.10-17.30: Mark Anderson (University of Georgia): “The Cosmopolitics of Friendship: Rethinking Political Relations through Davi Kopenawa Yanomami’s The Falling Sky”

17.30-18.00: Discussion

19:00: Dinner

30. Juni 2022

Anticipating Catastrophe (or not): Literature as Future Knowledge

09.30-09.50: James Berger (Yale): “Why Cassandra failed (Kim Stanley Robinson)”

09:50-10.10: Jürgen Wertheimer (Tübingen): “‘If Clancy knew - why not EU?’ – The Wisdom of Literature”

10.10-10.30: Christoph Müller (IAI Berlin/Mecila): “Visiones de la sociedad futura: la literatura de ciencia ficción costarricense de las últimas tres décadas”

10.30-11.00: Discussion

11.00-11.30: Break

The Politics of Collapse and Conviviality: Failing States

11.30-11.50: Elsa Drucaroff (UBA Buenos Aires): “Cayéndonos del mapa y ya casi sin tiempo: reflexiones de una escritora y crítica argentina en tiempos de catástrofe”

11.50-12.10: Jan-Henrik Witthaus (Kassel): “Más allá de la novela del dictador: Pequeña soberanía en la literatura actual de América latina”

12.10-12.30: Ignacio Sánchez Prado (Washington Univ.): “Los fines del conflicto. Convivialidad, memoria y justicia en el cine latinoamericano post-2020”

12.30-13.00: Discussion

13.00-14.30: Lunch

Pandemic and Anthropocene Narratives

14.30-14.50: Lucero de Vivanco (U. Alberto Hurtado, Santiago de Chile): “Visiones de colapso y sobrevivencia en narrativas testimoniales pandémicas”

14.50-15.10: Ramiro Segura (La Plata/Mecila): “Pandemia, imaginación geográfica y futuros (no) urbanos en la Argentina ¿postglobal?”

15.10-15.30: Kirsten Kramer (Bielefeld): “(Post-)Global Scenarios and Anthropocene Narratives in Contemporary Argentinian Literature”

15.30-16.00: Discussion

16.00-16.30: Break

Uncertain Utopias, Rural Reconfigurations

16.30-16.50: Carlos Fonseca (Cambridge): “The Caribbean as World-Chrysalis: Post-Catastrophic Reconfigurations in Rita Indiana, Wifredo Lam and Ana Mendieta”

16.50-17.10: Bieke Willem (Cologne): “Convivencias utópicas en un paisaje agotado: nuevas configuraciones ficcionales de la pampa argentina”

17.10-17.30: Anne Kraume (Constance): „El desierto entre colapso y convivencia en la reciente producción literaria chilena“

17.30-18.00: Discussion

18.00-19.30: Dinner

19.30-20.30: Final discussion and closing words