To expand the ongoing debates on posthumanism, the panel makes an explicit effort to move away from the still hegemonic European Enlightenment ideas that put the human above other creatures and things (Wolfe) and looks at the human as part of a relational web of living things. For said purpose, the panel, which consists of three 18-minute back-to-back talks followed by an unstructured discussion with attendees, emphasizes divergent perspectives expressed through literature from the Global South, be it Mesoamerican conceptions of the vitality of objects and a remarkable re-reading of World War II (presentation 1), a unconventional conception of total war in a Mozambican novel (presentation 2), or the uses and abuses of animals when the pastoral-indigenous, nationalist, and Maoist ideologies and narratives collided during the Peruvian Civil War (presentation 3).

Tatiana Argüello will open up the session with her paper, “The Things of the World Are in Rebellion: Materiality and War in the Avant-Garde Poetry of Joaquín Pasos.” She will discuss the epic poem “The War Song of Things,” (1947) by Nicaraguan poet Joaquín Pasos, which was inspired by the desolation produced by World War II. In dialogue with Jane Bennett's notion of vital materiality, Argüello highlights how the poem offers a different rendering of World War II through its focus on interactions of humans with non-human actors. Animated by its depiction of the materiality of metals and weapons, the destruction of the body and the representation of the vegetal, the poem is a collective plea for the creation of political and ecological commitment; it appeals to a new type of community against war: one that reconciles us with everything that surrounds us. In this community, the limits between culture and nature disappear, human and non-human suffering are understood, and the materiality of the world is respected. The destruction of things demands to create a fluid and relational world that connects everything. Argüello also shows how the poet puts technology at the service of the natural world, in keeping with his revaluation of the potential of pre-Columbian indigenous cultures.

Sophie Esch in her talk, "Of Elephants, Chickens, and Tanks: Total War and Redemption in Mia Couto's Sleepwalking Land," discusses the particular way the widely acclaimed novel Terra sonâmbula (1992) by Mozambican writer Mia Couto represents war. Esch argues that Couto represents the Mozambican Civil War (1977-1992) as a total war, not in the concept's traditional sense that the entire human population and economy is directed towards the war effort, but in the sense that also animals, the landscape, buildings, and machines are deeply affected by the war. The novel operates in a dreamlike setting of devastation and displacement where the landscape constantly shifts showing that the land itself is in upheaval. We see goats and elephants hurt by mines and gunfire, a mutilated man comparing himself to a stranded tank, and buildings in mourning. Esch further argues that throughout the novel runs the idea that only in the non-human animal can humans find a sanctuary or redemption from war. One father converts his son into a chicken to save him from marauders, and the novel closes with a tale from a refugee camp in which a witch doctor converts the ailing humans into wild animals, freeing them from suffering as they scatter off into the bush.

Giosué Alagna will close the session with a paper on "Animal Cruelty, Animal Tropes and Dehumanization in the Peruvian Civil War." In Lituma en los Andes (1993), Mario Vargas Llosa offers a highly contested version of the war between the Shining Path and the Peruvian government (1980-2000). In the novel, the irrational cruelty and backwardness of Shining Path militants are equated with Andean culture through scenes such as the massacre of a herd of vicuñas by the guerrillas. However, while this passage has historical precedents, the Shining Path was not the only side to engage in animal cruelty. In fact, the Peruvian armed forces systematically trained recruits and paramilitaries through cruel acts towards animals. Chungui: Violencia y Trazos de Memoria (2009), a collection of testimonies by Edilberto Jiménez, offers details regarding the fate of domestic animals at the hands of different actors, and abounds in animals tropes to describe the dehumanizing experience of peasants during the war. In this paper, Alagna considers these representations in Jiménez's and Vargas Llosa’s books against a discussion on the moral value of animals in the Andes. He contends that, besides readying combatants for unprecedented cruelty toward humans, animal cruelty also alienated peasant communities where pastoralism is key to survival and rituals regard animals as part of the human sphere.