Between the speculative and the spectacular: climate, capital, and spectacle in A extinção das abelhas (2021)

Abstract

This article investigates the use of spectacle to represent climate change in the 2021 novel A extinção das abelhas by Natalia Borges Polesso to explore the alienation of experience in the Capitalocene (Moore, 2015) and to imagine how heterogeneous communities may be formed in the face of the ecological crisis. In the novel, spectacle highlights the degradation of both the natural environment and civil society. Yet, despite this world being in collapse, the narrative articulates, through its formal structure and later conclusion, an ecological détournement that encourages readers to imagine alternative forms of collectivity and futures for humanity.