A talk by Victoria Saramago, Associate Professor of Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Studies,
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures,
The University of Chicago
This talk explores the intersection of energy cultures and animal studies from a Latin American perspective, focusing on what I call a phenomenology of the non-electrical in rural and forested environments. While electrification transformed society and perceptions of environmental change, little attention has been paid to the cultural and sensory implications of off-grid spaces, particularly as they enable human-nonhuman
encounters. Drawing on literary works such as João Guimarães Rosa’s Buriti (1956) and Mayra Montero’s Tú, la oscuridad (1995), the presentation examines how darkness and limited artificial light enable multispecies interactions and narratives that resist the dominant frameworks of modernity and the Anthropocene. In Rosa’s sertão, the absence of electric lighting heightens auditory awareness and intensifies nonhuman presence, allowing for a stream-of-consciousness narrative saturated with animal sounds. Montero’s novel, meanwhile, foregrounds the crucial role of portable lighting in encounters with endangered nocturnal species, emphasizing both the technological mediation and the vulnerability of these animals. By contrasting sensory experiences shaped by electricity and its absence, I argue that energy cultures profoundly influence our collective imagination and perception of biodiversity. I propose that animal
studies can benefit from interrogating the energy regimes enabling multispecies encounters, while energy humanities must account for the epistemologies and affective dimensions embedded in animal encounters.
Light refreshments following the talk.
Spanish and Portuguese
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