Garbage Out: Space, Place, and Neo-imperial Anti-development in Gioconda Belli’s Waslala

Abstract

Gioconda Belli’s Waslala criticizes the concept of “anti-developmental neo-imperialism”: the novel’s fictional Central American nation's development is cancelled by a form of neo-imperial conservation that forces the preservation of rainforest to supply breathable air to oxygen-starved nations that will cut off electrical power for non-compliance. The theoretical approach engages with the idea of a global expansion of the sense of place, but I argue that the novel rejects this notion when it comes down to an “anti-developmental neo-imperialist” political ecology of forced conservationism that is as guilty of environmental injustice as the ecological practices it seeks to prevent.

Resumen

Waslala de Gioconda Belli critica el concepto de “neo-imperialismo anti-evolutivo”: el desarrollo de la nación ficticia centroamericana de la novela se ve cancelada por  un tipo de conservación neo-imperial que obliga a conservar la selva tropical para proporcionar aire respirable a las naciones hambrientas de oxígeno que cortarán la energía eléctrica si no hay conformidad. El enfoque teórico se relaciona con la idea de una expansión global del sentido del lugar, pero yo alego que la novela rechaza esta noción cuando es cuestión de es una ecología política “neo-imperialista anti-evolutiva” de conservacionismo forzado, que es tan culpable de la injusticia medioambiental como las prácticas ecológicas que busca prevenir.