Library of Congress - Landscape, Archives and Environmental Rewriting in Latin American Literature

The proposed fellowship at the Library of Congress will form a fundamental part of my PhD project on environmental rewriting in Latin America. The research examines contemporary fiction which rewrites and reimagines place and asks what this reveals about collective emotions in the face of a precarious future shaped by climate change. The project is unique in its methodology which places Frederic Jameson’s concept of cognitive mapping within nature, the questions it asks of the corpus texts and the breadth of space covered (from Mexico to Argentina). The time spent at the Library will allow me to immerse myself in its diverse holdings, many of which are not accessible elsewhere, contributing to both my PhD project and to an academic article on landscape, archives and literature which I plan to submit to the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. Having spoken to librarians in the Hispanic Reading Room, I know my project is well placed within the Library’s unique collections on Latin American literature. With ongoing projects such as the PALABRA archive, a collection of audio recordings of authors from across the region, it will push my research to include diverse holdings outside of the written word and get involved in unique collections that catalogue contemporary Latin American authors producing a soundscape of authors I interact with. This fellowship will be invaluable to my PhD project and professional growth: working within a vibrant research community will allow me to network within the sphere of US academia, a leader in Latin American studies.