Challenging the Notion of "Reality"

Started my Spanish Independent Study this week and am reading an anthology on "la ecocritica." Basically, it is a form of literary criticism which seeks to understand - by analyzing Latin American literature - the complex relationship between the environment/nature and mankind - culturally and historically. I know you may already be bored with this post but, stick with me a few more paragraphs.

Part of the purpose of this study is to eventually delve into Peruvian Lit and try to understand the cultural context of the reforestation/community work A Rocha Peru is doing. How do people view the natural world around them? And, what is man's relationship with nature supposed to look like? As I was reading through some essays, I came across a very interesting remark by Nicarguan author Gioconda Belli. In her book Waslala (which I am actually reading next month) she writes from an eco-feminist persuasion in which she seeks to "overturn the power structure" that has traditionally viewed Lain American women as passive objects of reception and has also "systematically oppressed nature." As a women coming from this environment herself, her words ring loud and clear for many living in the majority world. I thought her comment on the "utopia" she describes in her novel, provides an interesting perspective: 

" In the world of fiction, [utopias] are possible. If literature manages to convey them as credible and possible, converting them into fictions that come to live in the minds of men and women, their immaterial existence can be converted into real subsistence.... New worlds, new societies, new human relationships must be created in literature, in painting, in all of the arts. Thus humans of this and future generations, even though they may live in a plastic world with gas masks and plagues, will know that there is another reality possible and some day they will dare to set off in search of it" 

pg 149

For Belli, literature is the force behind which entire cultures can shift and bring empowerment and hope to the marginalized. She calls for people to reverse the patterns of tradition which have for so long abused women and the natural world.  This is a difficult and at times overwhelming task. But, she doesn't think the "idealistic" outcome is completely unattainable and uses the power of fiction to make her point.

I can think of multiple examples in American literature which also could arguably have shifted the way we look at the world around us. Although not fiction, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, written in 1962, revolutionized the way many people viewed pesticides such as DDT and brought to light the detrimental effects it had on people and the environment. Its' purpose was to educate but also to inspire people to imagine a world which was free from the poisons which destroyed the very least among us. Again, this task seems overwhelming but Carson used people's stories to spark reflection and encourage bold  (and admittedly unpopular) action.

It is just the beginning of this exploration but I am sure to find more interesting connections along the way. Not to mention the fact that actually being in Peru ,where I can talk with the people around me, will lead to more questions and provide greater insight.

Do you think utopias are unreachable and completely unrealistic or do you think people just have to put things in perspective long enough to realize they can change common (and sometimes destructive) perceptions of reality?

Kind of a deep one today. Don't worry, I'll put up more pictures of my trips throughout the next few weeks :)