Abstract
This essay places the narrative of the Spanish writer José A. Cano (b. 1954 in Madrid) within the context of contemporary Spanish ecofiction. Concerned with the state of global humanity, Cano reflects a growing postnational perspective among Spanish writers whose works critically address the challenges of the Anthropocene—in particular, the destructive effects the tenets of Western modernity (Kantian ethics, utilitarian values, human-Nature divide, logic of exploitation, dualistic and anthropocentric thought, etc.) have had on the more-than-human world. Heavily influenced by the Romanian philosopher E. M. Cioran, Cano’s novel La felicidad del Malvado (2023) offers a pessimistic outlook regarding the future of humankind. Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote provides another backdrop for this transatlantic novel, situated between the United States and Madrid, allowing Cervantine humor to balance out Cioran’s omnipresent voice of doom.
