La descentralización del sujeto humano ante el micelio: una lectura ecocrítica material, posthumanista y ecogótica en 'The Last of Us' y 'Aquí la tierra es mala'

Daniel Isaí Mata Velázquez

doi:10.33064/12ais8386

Authors

Daniel Isaí Mata Velázquez Investigador independiente https://orcid.org/0009-0001-6660-1955

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33064/12ais8386

Keywords:

Posthumanism, Cthulucene, EcoGothic, Material Ecocriticism, Ecozombie

Abstract

This research proposes a comparative analysis of The Last of Us (2023), The Last of Us II (2025), and J. G. Mesa’s Aquí la tierra es mala (2018). This analysis is based on a theoretical framework centered on material ecocriticism and ecogothic, as well as posthumanism and the Cthulucene as proposed by Haraway, in order to understand the fungal zombie body as a result of an ecological collapse caused by the Capitalocene. It is argued that those infected by Ophiocordyceps unilateralis decentralize the human subject as the sole agent by questioning the sovereignty of the self, making zones of contact with the non-human visible, and revealing networks of biological interconnection through transcorporeal forms. The foregoing leads to a posthumanist turn that distributes human and non-human agency in a shared—though not necessarily harmonious—ecology that fractures the self-satisfied thinking of anthropocentrism. It does this by exposing multispecies and contaminated bodies in a network of relationships and intra-actions, according to Barad, while also revealing the responsibilities of the human as a material subject interconnected in its local ecologies.

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Author Biography

Daniel Isaí Mata Velázquez, Investigador independiente

Daniel Isaí Mata Velázquez holds a bachelor's degree in Hispanic Literature from the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes. His work has received two honorable mentions: one in the Premio Nacional al Estudiante Universitario (Poetry category) and another for his eco-gothic research on Aquí la tierra es mala by J. G. Mesa. He was also a speaker at the FOGO 2023 Conference at the Universidad de León, Spain. His primary academic interest lies in literary research through posthumanist, ecocritical, and eco-gothic perspectives. Through this approach, he analyzes configurations of corporeality, the monstrous, and material-discursive phenomena to theorize the deep interconnections between human beings and their environment.

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