Construing the Postapocalypse in Two Different Spaces and Artistic Languages: Margaret Atwood and Adrián Villar Rojas

From a thematic approach to literature and the arts, the article aims at exploring and comparing how the Postapocalypse is constructed in the trilogy MaddAddam by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood (n. 1939) and the recent works of the young Argentinean sculptor Adrián Villar Rojas (n. 1980). The produ...

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Main Author: Cristina Elgue-Martini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba 2020-12-01
Series:Revista de Culturas y Literaturas Comparadas
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/CultyLit/article/view/31856
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author Cristina Elgue-Martini
author_facet Cristina Elgue-Martini
author_sort Cristina Elgue-Martini
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description From a thematic approach to literature and the arts, the article aims at exploring and comparing how the Postapocalypse is constructed in the trilogy MaddAddam by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood (n. 1939) and the recent works of the young Argentinean sculptor Adrián Villar Rojas (n. 1980). The production of both artists is approached as belonging to a dystopian tradition, defined mainly from Frederic Jameson’s point of view. The main interest of Atwood’s trilogy is centered on the conditions of survivalof the human species on the planet after the “waterless flood”, a pandemic produced in a laboratory of bioengineering. Atwood believes in the possibility of survival, in a new beginning of culture on the planet on the basis of an unprecedented hybrid life born out of the mixing of human beings and beings born in laboratories, and a new approach to animal and natural life. As to Villar Rojas, though his first site-specifics are quite pessimistic as to the fate of the planet, in the title of one of his XXIst Century exhibitions -Today We Reboot the Planet, in the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (2013)- the faith in a Postapocalypse begins to emerge. The analysis will precisely focus on the techniques he uses in his celebrated site-specific art to attain this aim.
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spelling doaj.art-cd5b81d2e4074801a3eb3bbb93890cb02022-12-22T01:33:09ZengUniversidad Nacional de CórdobaRevista de Culturas y Literaturas Comparadas1852-47372591-38832020-12-0110182735609Construing the Postapocalypse in Two Different Spaces and Artistic Languages: Margaret Atwood and Adrián Villar RojasCristina Elgue-Martini0Facultad de Lenguas, Universidad Nacional de CórdobaFrom a thematic approach to literature and the arts, the article aims at exploring and comparing how the Postapocalypse is constructed in the trilogy MaddAddam by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood (n. 1939) and the recent works of the young Argentinean sculptor Adrián Villar Rojas (n. 1980). The production of both artists is approached as belonging to a dystopian tradition, defined mainly from Frederic Jameson’s point of view. The main interest of Atwood’s trilogy is centered on the conditions of survivalof the human species on the planet after the “waterless flood”, a pandemic produced in a laboratory of bioengineering. Atwood believes in the possibility of survival, in a new beginning of culture on the planet on the basis of an unprecedented hybrid life born out of the mixing of human beings and beings born in laboratories, and a new approach to animal and natural life. As to Villar Rojas, though his first site-specifics are quite pessimistic as to the fate of the planet, in the title of one of his XXIst Century exhibitions -Today We Reboot the Planet, in the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (2013)- the faith in a Postapocalypse begins to emerge. The analysis will precisely focus on the techniques he uses in his celebrated site-specific art to attain this aim.https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/CultyLit/article/view/31856postapocalypsedystopialiteraturethe plastic arts
spellingShingle Cristina Elgue-Martini
Construing the Postapocalypse in Two Different Spaces and Artistic Languages: Margaret Atwood and Adrián Villar Rojas
Revista de Culturas y Literaturas Comparadas
postapocalypse
dystopia
literature
the plastic arts
title Construing the Postapocalypse in Two Different Spaces and Artistic Languages: Margaret Atwood and Adrián Villar Rojas
title_full Construing the Postapocalypse in Two Different Spaces and Artistic Languages: Margaret Atwood and Adrián Villar Rojas
title_fullStr Construing the Postapocalypse in Two Different Spaces and Artistic Languages: Margaret Atwood and Adrián Villar Rojas
title_full_unstemmed Construing the Postapocalypse in Two Different Spaces and Artistic Languages: Margaret Atwood and Adrián Villar Rojas
title_short Construing the Postapocalypse in Two Different Spaces and Artistic Languages: Margaret Atwood and Adrián Villar Rojas
title_sort construing the postapocalypse in two different spaces and artistic languages margaret atwood and adrian villar rojas
topic postapocalypse
dystopia
literature
the plastic arts
url https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/CultyLit/article/view/31856
work_keys_str_mv AT cristinaelguemartini construingthepostapocalypseintwodifferentspacesandartisticlanguagesmargaretatwoodandadrianvillarrojas