Keywords

speculative fiction queer ecofiction puerto rico boricua

Abstract

En Tiempos de Extinción is a collection of short, mostly speculative, stories exploring themes of community, exploitation, resistance, and the ever-present effects of colonialism in nearly every aspect of life. “El Amor de una Diosa es Amor Suficiente” centers on a young girl’s initiation into a community that will do whatever it takes to indoctrinate the young. “Al Aire Libre” focuses on two tenured professors determined to enjoy their last day on the job, navigating the complicated feelings of what progress means in a world that prioritizes capital. In “OVNI,” the history of a wacky television dating show unravels as a young woman comes to terms with the death of her grandmother. “Chucherías y Herencias” is a story about the physical allure of financial stability and the central question of what is owed, and to whom, when one falls in love with the idea of security. The titular story, “En Tiempos de Extinción,” is a story told exclusively through dialogue between a newly drafted helionaut and her sentient spaceship as they discuss ethics and what it means to be human. “Hijo Único” is from the perspective of a bird with an identity crisis who bears witness to how grief can manifest even in the most powerful of figures. Finally, “La Subasta” is a story about how cultural authenticity can be sold to the highest bidder, and how the people of that culture find subversive ways to resist. This collection resists the typical categorization of Latine stories as falling into the subgenre of “magical realism” and focuses on creating narratives that employ setting, characterization, and speculative conceits to empower its characters into repelling stereotypes as well as question the systems that govern the marginalized.

Completion Date

2026

Semester

Spring

Committee Chair

Schwartz, David Lerner

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Identifier

DP0053247

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