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American fin-de-siècle materialism in Jesús López Pacheco's Ecólogas y Urbanas

Abstract

The work of Jesús López Pacheco (1930-1997) has always been conscious of the environment surrounding his characters. It will be, however, in his last work during his lifetime, Ecólogas y Urbanas: Manual para evitar un fin de siglo siniestro (1996), where this concern is manifested in all its splendor. Behind this neologism (which combines “eclogue” and “ecology”) hides a lyrical activism that goes from personal to collective experience, and that tries to bring us back to sustainability as a paradigm for subsistence in the third millennium. From an ecological materialist perspective of North American origin, it analyzes human relations with other animal species, the critique of savage economic mercantilism and the environmental degradation of urban landscapes. Therefore, showing a sharp sense of humour linked with vis poietica, a possible postpastoral scenario is drawn, tinged with hope, as the only solution to humanity in the years to come.

Keywords

López Pacheco, Ecólogas y Urbanas, American Materialism, Ecomarxism, Environmental Degradation, Anthropocene, critical realism, Generation of '50

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Author Biography

Juan Ignacio Oliva Cruz

Professor of Anglophone Postcolonial Literatures, editor of the Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses and director of the Center for Canadian Studies. Since 2019, he serves as president of the Spanish James Joyce Association; he was also president of the European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture and Environment (EASLCE, 2014-2016). He is a Member of the Research Groups in Ecocriticism, GIECO, of the Franklin Institute of the University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain and Ratnakara (Indian Ocean Literatures), UAB, Catalonia, Spain.


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