Mare Incognita : Towards a Latin American Sea Literature

The seas of Latin America, though deeply influential in shaping the region’s history and culture, remain peripheral in literary studies, overshadowed by land-based narratives. This oversight reflects broader academic trends prioritizing continental perspectives, resulting in the underrepresentation of marine spaces within dominant epistemologies. This article seeks to address this gap by proposing Latin American Sea Literature as a new field within the Blue Humanities. Employing the concept of the ‘rhizosphere’, a metaphor for interconnected cultural and ecological systems, it explores the seas as active participants in narratives of migration, identity and survival. Through a comparative analysis of five key marine narratives from diverse Latin American authors the study highlights themes of rhythm, chaos, survival and ecology. This approach reveals the transformative potential of marine narratives, offering innovative insights into Latin America’s literary heritage and ecological consciousness.