https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n31.05

Aída Sofía Rivera Sotelo
Orcid ID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2315-2851
University of California, Davis, USA
ariverasotelo@ucdavis.edu

Abstract:

This paper helps spread two bodies of literature among a Spanish speaking audience, that is, social studies of extinction and ‘response-ability’. It argues that social studies on extinction highlight violence and suffering as the primary connection between humans and other extinct and endangered animals. Inspired in feminist philosophers, such as Vinciane Despret and Donna Haraway, both of whom tell stories of animals who are able to respond rather than merely reacting, this paper asks what else we can find in processes of extinction besides suffering and violence. This approach is important as it calls for individual and collective responses sprang from curiosity rather than guilt and pity. This proposal go hand in hand with creative writing, which enables telling about corals that have become nurseries. It suggests that these sea worlds might be doing more than simply disappearing. They are also the material shapes taken by underwater human living networks.

Keywords: extinction, response-ability, form and corals.