Abstract What stories might connect democracies to nonhumans and thus support the joint flourishing of humans and nonhumans? This paper examines stories where the territory is one of the main characters: Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe , Michel Tournier’s Friday , and stories told by activists in recent political movements for “The Defense of Water and Territory” in Latin America. Each of these rely on myths to send a political message, but the first two rely on a solitary hero who either conquers or protects the land, while the latter tell stories about becoming strong with others while respecting each one. By conveying a message of collaboration between humans and nonhumans according to democratic principles, they also seek to become new myths linking democracies to the nonhuman world.
Paulina Ochoa Espejo (Sun,) studied this question.