Dr. Greg C. Severyn, Susquehanna University, Spanish
Beyond the Anthropocene: Central American Science Fiction
Much of Latin American science fiction (sf) intimately explores humanity’s connection with the natural world, including human/non-human relationships, climate change, and the human-centric role of the Anthropocene. The subset of Latin American sf that I explore from Central America may therefore be understood as proposing distinct visions for the future as humanity grapples with social and climate issues that, at the same time, oftentimes necessitate creative play with literary forms. When exploring these ideas as part of an advanced undergraduate course, students will be able to connect Central America’s cultural and sociopolitical histories with the critical voices and ideas embedded in each text. To further the linguistic, literary, and cultural expertise of the Spanish Studies majors and minors who comprise the primary audience of this course, students will develop a creative writing project of their own in which they employ Central American sf norms and characteristics as they examine issues of climate change or apocalypse, for example, from a localized and regional perspective. Students will follow-up this project with broader, systems-level thinking activities to better understand how positionality matters when it comes to various forms of sustainability, thereby becoming intimately familiar with the Central American literary works in question.