Lexington Books The Nature of Hate and the Hatred of Nature in Hispanic Literatures

The Nature of Hate and the Hatred of Nature in Hispanic Literatures retraces the "nature of hatred" and the "hatred of nature" from the earliest traditions of Western literature including Biblical texts, Medieval Spanish literature, early Spanish Renaissance texts, to nineteenth- and twentieth-century Iberian and Latin American literatures. The nature of hate is neither hate in its weakened form, as in disliking or loving less, nor hate in its righteous form, as in "I hate hatred," rather hate in its primal form as told and conveyed in so many culturally influential Bible stories that are at the root of hatred as it manifests itself today. The hatred of nature is not only contempt for the natural world, but also the idea of nature hating in return, thus inspiring even more hatred of nature. While some chapters, such as the one dedicated to La Celestina, focus more on the nature of hate and the hatred of love, they do address the hatred of nature, as when Celestina conjures Pluto, who happens to be closer to nature than to Satan. Other chapters, such as the ones dedicated to the Latin American novels set in the jungle, focus more on the hatred of nature but ultimately turn to the nature of hatred by analyzing hatred and the descent into madness. In the final chapters Beatriz Rivera-Barnes simultaneously addresses the nature of hatred and the hatred of nature as well as the ecophilia/ecophobia debate in twentieth-century Latin American literatures and considers, if not an assimilation of hate, possibly the cannibalizing of hate. Review In The Nature of Hate and the Hatred of Nature in Hispanic Literatures Beatriz Rivera-Barnes has made of that execrable feeling called hate a fascinating object of academic study and a thought-provoking trope for the ecocritical reading of Western civilization.--José Manuel Marrero Henríquez, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain This bold book addresses a topic in many ways antithetical to the bright hopefulness of theories that stress play, love, and co-operation as the core principles of ecology. Wide-ranging and interdisciplinary, this book is about hatred toward nature and its sources. Equally concerned with the hatred of nature as with the nature of hatred, Rivera-Barnes is compelling in her analyses, illuminating in her discussions of a broad range of Hispanic literatures, and hopeful in her recognition and handling of the less favored threads of the complete tapestry. This accessible book is necessary reading for anyone concerned about the environment.--Simon C. Estok, Sungkyunkwan University About the Author Beatriz Rivera-Barnes is associate professor of Spanish at Penn State University.