Writing the Amazon and the End of the World: Gender, Care, and Cosmopolitics

The purpose of this course is to look at the present-day world and its ends through a perspective informed by feminist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, speculative, anthropological, and extra-academic knowledge. We are constantly exposed to explanations, emotions, and data about the End of the World. But which World and worlds are ending? For whom? From which perspective? When did the end of the world begin, and when will it end? We will contextualize these discussions with a focus on the Amazon, and the experience of the Amazon as a point of view and as a Latin American metaphorical space. The Amazon is not merely a natural region perfectly circumscribed by multiple state borders. It is a magnificent political and mythical, gendered, colonial invention and “a World of many worlds.” An intermediate knowledge of Spanish is required for this course for conducting readings and class-discussion. Knowledge of Portuguese is a plus but is not required.