La vida después del Antropoceno: una lectura posthumanista en Lágrimas en la lluvia de Rosa Montero

Antonella De Sena

doi:10.14198/pangeas.27500

Authors

Antonella De Sena Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientale, Italy https://orcid.org/0009-0000-3973-5483

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14198/pangeas.27500

Keywords:

ecocriticism, dystopia, apocalypse, posthuman, capitalism

Abstract

The technological, scientific, and economic development that began in modern times has profoundly transformed the Western worldview. From a view of nature as an internal force that makes living organisms grow, we have shifted to an anthropocentric view in which human beings, feeling superior to the living and non-living beings around them, have justified their exploitation. The interpretation of nature as something external to human beings is, thus, considered to be the origin of the current ecological crisis. It is in this context that the field of ecocriticism arises, which, by bringing environmental issues into the realm of literary criticism, aims to change current cultural models, value hierarchies and theoretical frameworks, with the goal of raising awareness of the problems of the relationship between humans and nature and to encourage the development of new attitudes towards the environment and non-human life forms. In the following article, after presenting current advances in the theoretical field of ecocriticism, Rosa Montero’s eco-dystopian novel Lágrimas en la lluvia (2011) will be analysed. It will examine, through a posthumanist approach, how Montero’s work invites us to move beyond anthropocentrism, suggesting that overcoming fear of otherness and establishing reciprocal interspecies cooperation on a personal level is the approach that will best counter neoliberal capitalism and its destructive effects on society and the environment.

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