The Victoria regia was discovered in British Guiana in 1837, and for over ten years explorers and scientists tried different methods to transport viable seeds back to England. When the seeds were finally on British soil, no one could grow them successfully except Joseph Paxton, the head gardener for the Duke of Devonshire. Paxton built a special glass house at Chatsworth estate to mimic the tropical climate the Amazonian lily required, and created an innovative tank that was heated with coal and fitted with an apparatus to gently keep the water moving, replicating freshwater rivers. The œvegetable wonder, as it came to be known, had floating leaves measuring up to 6 feet in diameter and was considered truly magnificent. To reveal the successful growth of the œqueen of aquatics to the public, Paxton dressed his seven-year-old daughter Annie in a fairy costume, dimmed the lights, and set her on the largest of the floating leaves. She stood there and created a theatrical tableau that transfixed all who saw it. This performance, which I am calling a œbotanical-theatrical event, is the site of my examination. Drawing on ecocritical perspectives and performance studies, I argue that this presentation was coded with social and political messaging that reinforced English national identity and imperial intentions. The lily was a signifier of the exotic, while the child was a signifier of the domestic. This botanical-theatrical event was deeply significant because it embodied the social and political views of the time, acting out the British Empire being œon top of, and supported by, the œuncivilized world. The water lily had been taken from its natural habitat, transported across the ocean and grown in a manipulated environment. It became a specimen/spectacle. The little girl had been taken out of her natural habitat, dressed as another creature and displayed on the floating leaf. She also became a specimen/spectacle. The interaction between these two organisms in this theatrical exhibition synthesized a physical representation of Imperialism that was powerful to the people of the time because of the social and political system in which they lived.

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La novela Casas muertas de Miguel Otero Silva es una obra significativa de la literatura venezolana que trata sobre como el descubrimiento del petróleo, las enfermedades y las migraciones destruyeron un pueblo. Debido a la relevancia de los temas tratados, el objetivo de la investigación fue el analizar la representación del repertorio general del texto y de la relación entre lo humano y lo no humano en la novela. Para ello, se utilizó el método hermenéutico, realizando así una lectura minuciosa del corpus a partir de la cual se extrajo citas para analizarlas basándonos en el repertorio general del texto y la ecocrítica presentados en el marco teórico. Como resultado, se encontró que entre las técnicas utilizadas para representar los eventos contextuales en los cuales se escribió la novela fueron las alegorías para representar el conflicto político, la pobreza y el conflicto regional, las metáforas como representación de la exportación petrolera, la migración y la destrucción del pueblo y los personajes alegóricos para presentar partidos, la corrupción e instituciones. Por otro lado, partiendo desde el punto de vista ecocrítico, se encontró que la novela refleja la intervención humana en lo no humano a través de la contaminación y manipulación de animales y la destrucción de la naturaleza. Se observó a su vez la explotación de lo no humano para fines humanos a través del extractivismo petrolero y como es que a la ausencia del humano que lo no humano puede florecer. Sin embargo, se concluyó que la novela presenta de un modelo de una relación sostenible a través de la interacción de la protagonista, Carmen Rosa, y su patio. / The novel Casas muertas by Miguel Otero Silva is a significant work of Venezuelan literature that discusses how oil´s discovery, diseases and migrations destroyed a town. Due to the relevance of the themes addressed in the novel, the objective of the research was to analyze the representation of the general repertoire of the text and the relationship between the human and the non-human in the novel. To achieve this, the hermeneutic method was used by carrying out a thorough reading of the corpus and extracting quotes from it to analyze them, based on the general repertoire of the text and the ecocriticism theory presented in the theoretical framework. As a result, it was found that among the techniques used to represent the contextual events in which the novel was written were allegories to represent poverty and political and regional conflict, metaphors to represent oil exports, migration and the destruction of the town, and allegorical characters to represent parties, corruption, and institutions. Furthermore, from the ecocritical point of view, it was found that the novel reflects human intervention in the non-human world through the contamination and tampering of animals and the destruction of nature. At the same time, the exploitation of the non-human for human purposes was observed through oil extractivism, and how it is due to the absence of the human that the non-human can flourish. However, it was concluded that the novel does present a model of sustainable relationship through the interaction of the protagonist, Carmen Rosa, and her patio.

Education on sustainable development and environmental awareness is becoming increasingly important with the current climate emergency. This type of education extends across all school subjects and texts of various kinds are shown to be able to help students gain new insights about the world and themselves. This essay analyzes the eco-theological and ecocritical themes found in Sheila Heti’s novel Pure Color, which was published in 2022. Furthermore, this essay illustrates how to use the novel and the ecological theories in the EFL classroom. The results show that there are noticeable spiritual and ecocritical themes in the novel as it depicts existential thoughts about the universe, God, and man’s relationship to nature.

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En el contexto contemporáneo de desaparición de los biotopos selváticos en América Latina, esta tesina tiene por objetivo reactualizar el estudio de las representaciones de la selva en la literatura de la selva latinoamericana en el contexto del choque entre Modernidad y naturaleza, con el avance de la ciencia y las actividades extractivas de los años 20. Con enfoque en las voces narrativas en el cuento “Anaconda” (1921) de Horacio Quiroga y en la novela La vorágine (1924) de José Eustasio Rivera, el estudio busca iluminar las elaboraciones literarias de las zonas selváticas misionera y amazónica, respectivamente. Partimos de la identificación de un problema que radica en una dualidad en las interpretaciones de este tema. Mientras una serie de estudios han propuesto que en la novela selva, género al que pertenece el corpus a pesar de ser uno un cuento, la selva se presenta como “infierno verde” (Rueda: 2003) para el ser humano, otros estudios actuales definen a la selva como “zona de contagios” (Andermann, 2018) entre ser humano y selva. Valiéndonos de perspectivas ecocríticas (Glotfelty, 1996;Marcone, 1998; Gunnels, 2006; Arévalo Viveros, 2009; Camasca, 2020; Heffes, 2014, 2021), en esta tesina analizamos cómo se articulan las representaciones de la selva en los dos textos, y cómo se relacionan tales representaciones con el conflicto del choque entre Modernidad y naturaleza. Como resultados principales, el análisis arroja que la selva se representa a través de una personificación y antropomorfización, donde la voz narrativa le otorga características y acciones humanas a las plantas en Rivera y a las víboras en Quiroga‒, donde la selva tanto se muestra hostil o como víctima. Sin embargo, en esta representación, también encontramos instancias de contagio mutuo, donde la naturaleza y el hombre actúan mutuamente con violencia. Asimismo, también observamos una nueva variante en estas representaciones de la selva relacionada con la apatía e indiferencia del ser humano hacia la naturaleza, y una reacción de la naturaleza relacionada con su enmudecimiento, lo cual implica que esta literatura de la selva de los años 20 puede aportar conocimientos necesarios para comprender la actual situación de desaparición de las selvas en América Latina. / n the contemporary context of the disappearance of jungle biotopes in Latin America, this thesis aims to update the study of the representations of the jungle in the literature of the Latin American jungle in the context of the clash between Modernity and nature, in conjunction with the advances of science and extractive activities of the 1920s. From a focus on narrative voices in the short story "Anaconda" (1921) by Horacio Quiroga and in the novel La vorágine (1924) by José Eustasio Rivera, the study objective of the study is to illuminate the literary representations of the missionary and Amazon jungle areas, respectively. We start from the identification of a problem that lies in a duality in the interpretations of this topic. While a seriesof studies has proposed that in the novela de la selva, the genre to which the corpus belongs despite being a story, the jungle is presented as a “green hell” (Rueda, 2003) for the human being. Other current studies define the jungle as a “contagion zone” (Andermann, 2018) between human beings and the jungle. From an ecocritical perspective (Glotfelty, 1996; Marcone, 1998; Gunnels, 2006; Arévalo Viveros, 2009; Camasca, 2020; Heffes, 2014, 2021), in this thesis we analyze the representations of the forest that are articulated in the two texts, and how such representations are related to the conflict of the clash between Modernity and nature. As the main results, the analysis shows that the jungle is represented through personification and anthropomorphism, where the narrative voice gives characteristics and human actions, to the plants in Rivera and to the vipers in Quiroga, where the jungle is so hostile or as a victim. However, in this representation, we also find instances of mutual contagion, where nature and human beings act violently towards each other. Likewise, we also observe a new variant in these representations of the jungle related to the apathy and indifference of the human being towards nature, and a reaction of nature related to its silence, which implies that this literature of the jungle of the 20s can provide the necessary knowledge to understand the current disappearance of forests in Latin America