La respuesta literaria a los problemas ambientales: La ecocrítica en el Contexto español contemporáneo

From the world of science and the daily personal perception of each of us, the critical state of the planet, caused by the excessive pressure of human activity, is becoming in-creasingly clear. The human species is, of all species, the one that has most conquered ev-ery ecosystem on Earth, spreading everywhere. In his wandering around the world and in his ability to adapt to the most diverse situations, man has shaped the planet he lives in to such an extent that scientists have stated that these actions have had obvious con-sequences for ecosystems. Such concerns have also reached the field of literature, which, like ecology, has become interested in the environment and the relationship between hu-man and natural. Over time, a two-way relationship between these disciplines has been established and developed: the discourse of ecology adopts a typically literary narrative structure, only to return in the form of connotations characteristic of environmentally themed novels. Literature takes themes such as climate change from ecology and makes them the subject of fiction and narrative. In turn, literature determines the ways in which stories are told and also offers a series of reading effects, i.e. ideas about nature that we have been carrying around for centuries and that still influence the way we perceive it. In this essay, after presenting the birth and development of Ecocriticism studies, we will reflect on the interest that has led several contemporary Spanish authors to tackle these issues. We will investigate literary forms, conventions and objectives of an ecological cri-tique of literature that has led them to analyse the natural environment and the human-en-vironment relationship in the light of the impact of capitalism and neoliberal policies.