A Utopian Nightmare. The Ironic Ecophobia In Álvaro Vélez’s Follaje
Abstract
This article proposes an analysis from ecocriticism and (eco)narratology of the graphic novel Follaje (2019) by Álvaro Vélez, in connection with the concept of ecophobia, which encompasses human fears aroused by nature in all its forms. In Simon C. Estok's original formulation of this concept, ecophobia is associated with discourses on hygiene and personal care products, public sanitation and pest control policies, or the humanization of pets in urban environments, attitudes that in their most critical extremes can lead to segregationist behaviors such as xenophobia, sexism or homophobia. Estok proposes this category as a key for critical reading of cultural productions that encourage this type of attitude. Álvaro Vélez's comic, on the other hand, proposes a fantastic tale about a world in which vegetation and wild nature have triumphed over the predatory human creations, from the perspective of a character who sees this triumph as something negative. This inversion of the value of ecophobia constitutes an ironic aspect that makes it an even more powerful critical tool, giving it a metacritical dimension over the discourse of environmental humanities.
Keywords
Ecophobia, biophilia, metalepsis, liminal fantasy, ecocriticism.References
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