This article offers the first full-length, theory-driven reading of Monique Roffey's The Mermaid of Black Conch (2020) at the nexus of post-colonial ecofeminism and Caribbean magical realism. Mobilizing Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies's ecofeminist critique of patriarchal ownership, Rob Nixon's 'slow violence' and Stephen Slemon's model of magical realism as post-colonial discourse, the essay argues that Roffey's mermaid romance re-members Ta & iacute;no genocide, plantation slavery and neo-colonial extraction through a single hybrid body. Aycayia's declaration - 'Land is not to be owned' - unhinges residual planter hierarchies, while David Baptiste's epiphanic shift from possession to care rehearses an alternative, relational masculinity. Polyphonic form (Creole diary, Ta & iacute;no verse, third-person chronicle) constitutes a counter-archive that restores Indigenous and more-than-human voices to Caribbean historiography. The novel's open ending, in which the merwoman returns to a recuperating reef, models Donna Haraway's 'making-kin' ethics and imagines coral regeneration as a metaphor for social repair. By entwining gendered defiance, ecological memory and mythic method, Roffey crafts an 'ethic of regenerative refusal' that reframes Caribbean futures beyond plantation modernity.
Este art & iacute;culo examina la adaptaci & oacute;n del melodrama como herramienta de denuncia social en dos pel & iacute;culas sobre el conflicto armado colombiano: La pasi & oacute;n de Gabriel (Restrepo 2009) y Operaci & oacute;n E (Courtois 2012). A trav & eacute;s de un an & aacute;lisis de recursos melodram & aacute;ticos y elementos formales -espacios simb & oacute;licos, estructuras narrativas y caracterizaci & oacute;n de personajes- el estudio revela c & oacute;mo estas producciones actualizan las convenciones tradicionales del g & eacute;nero para articular una cr & iacute;tica sociopol & iacute;tica efectiva. La investigaci & oacute;n evidencia que la transformaci & oacute;n del melodrama opera en dos niveles: la construcci & oacute;n de personajes que encarnan diferentes formas de resistencia (el sacrificio heroico del sacerdote, la supervivencia pragm & aacute;tica del campesino) y el uso de estructuras narrativas que entrelazan historias & iacute;ntimas con la crisis nacional. Esta actualizaci & oacute;n del modo melodram & aacute;tico permite visibilizar tragedias individuales frecuentemente ausentes de discursos oficiales.
Aina Clotet produjo, co-dirigi & oacute; y co-escribi & oacute; Aix & ograve; no & eacute;s Su & egrave;cia, una serie estrenada en 2023 que cuestiona las idealizaciones de la 'crianza respetuosa' en el contexto neoliberal contempor & aacute;neo. Clotet tambi & eacute;n interpret & oacute; el papel protagonista, reconocimiento que le vali & oacute; el premio a Mejor Interpretaci & oacute;n en Canneseries 2024. Desde los Star Studies y los Motherhood Studies, el art & iacute;culo analiza c & oacute;mo la interpretaci & oacute;n de Clotet confronta las exigencias sociales de perfeccionismo parental y responsabilidad individual, presentes en los discursos contempor & aacute;neos y te & oacute;ricos sobre la crianza. A partir del an & aacute;lisis de un gesto recurrente de perplejidad o desconcierto que Clotet expresa a lo largo de la serie, la actriz visibiliza las contradicciones que surgen en su experiencia de la crianza respetuosa. En este sentido, el gesto se erige como un punto de inflexi & oacute;n que fomenta la interrogaci & oacute;n cr & iacute;tica y la problematizaci & oacute;n de los discursos preestablecidos y dogm & aacute;ticos en la crianza.
In recent decades, there has been a heightened interest in the analysis of child and adolescent characters in Latin American narrative. In this article, I investigate the child and adolescent characters in Argentine writer Claudia Pi & ntilde;eiro's Las viudas de los jueves, focusing on the culture of childhood, defined by the British sociologist Allison James and the period of adolescence that provides glimpses of fundamental changes that take place during this period of life. Moreover, I deploy Reinhard Kuhn's concept of enigmatic children to propose that Juani and Ramona represent Otherness and thus are marginalized but their location provides them with a special perspective of the community of the gated neighborhood and the school they attend. The novel's ending shows them as witnesses to the deaths, thus giving them a vantage point of what truly happened. Their ability to see what others ignore is a trait that confirms their mystery and separates them from the rarefied atmosphere of Los Altos de la Cascada.
