“Saramago gives a new twist to long-standing discussions about the status and function of fictional texts in environmental discourse and criticism, and whether realist and documentary modes are most appropriate for literature on environmental change. Ultimately, her innovative book engages with the more fundamental question of whether fictionality in and of itself gets in the way of ‘environmental messaging.’” —Ursula K. Heise, author of Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species
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“Fictional Environments: Mimesis and Deforestation in Latin America makes an important and novel contribution to both Latin American literary history and to environmental humanities independently, and specifically to the incipient but expanding field of Latin American ecocriticism.” —Rachel Price, author of The Object of the Atlantic: Concrete Aesthetics in Cuba, Brazil and Spain 1868-1968 (Northwestern, 2014)— -
“Wide-ranging, starkly original, and sharp, Fictional Environments is full of brilliant insights on the multiple relationships between writing and ecologies. While revisiting canonical texts and bringing together critical traditions often kept apart, Saramago sheds new light on our understanding of conservation, development, and the rights of nature and fiction, in Latin America and beyond. The book never loses sight of what’s at stake as it reflects on the limits and possibilities of literary creation amid ongoing environmental devastation.” —Bruno Carvalho, author of Porous City: A Cultural History of Rio de Janeiro— -
“Saramago gives a new twist to long-standing discussions about the status and function of fictional texts in environmental discourse and criticism, and whether realist and documentary modes are most appropriate for literature on environmental change. Ultimately, her innovative book engages with the more fundamental question of whether fictionality in and of itself gets in the way of ‘environmental messaging.’” —Ursula K. Heise, author of Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species
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“Fictional Environments: Mimesis and Deforestation in Latin America makes an important and novel contribution to both Latin American literary history and to environmental humanities independently, and specifically to the incipient but expanding field of Latin American ecocriticism.” —Rachel Price, author of The Object of the Atlantic: Concrete Aesthetics in Cuba, Brazil and Spain 1868-1968 (Northwestern, 2014)— -
“Wide-ranging, starkly original, and sharp, Fictional Environments is full of brilliant insights on the multiple relationships between writing and ecologies. While revisiting canonical texts and bringing together critical traditions often kept apart, Saramago sheds new light on our understanding of conservation, development, and the rights of nature and fiction, in Latin America and beyond. The book never loses sight of what’s at stake as it reflects on the limits and possibilities of literary creation amid ongoing environmental devastation.” —Bruno Carvalho, author of Porous City: A Cultural History of Rio de Janeiro— -