Aquatic Environments

From pre-Columbian times till today, human interventions in aquatic environments have been shaping the geopolitics of Latin America – the technologies related to irrigation, the use of rivers as borders or transportation routes, as well as the management of drinking water. The contributors to this volume examine the relationship between water and politics in Latin America via readings of both renowned and upcoming writers. They focus on the web of power relations and practices generated by these interventions in Latin American fiction and poetry. They reveal literary strategies that make it possible to share knowledge about other ways of organizing life in aquatic environments.

Bieke Willem is an assistant professor of Romance literature at the University of Cologne. She obtained her PhD in literature at Ghent University in Belgium (2014) and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and as an assistant professor of Latin American literature and culture at Stockholm University. Her research focuses mainly on literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, environmental humanities, affect and memory studies. Rebecca Seewald is a research assistant of Romance literature at the University of Cologne. Previously she worked at the department of comparative literature at the University of Bonn. Her research focuses on Latin American literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, studies of embodiment and memory, as well as sociological questions. She is currently working on her PhD project on violence and memory in academic settings.