Abstract

RODAL LINARES, Selma. Dehumanization as a counter-economic strategy in Pelea de gallos, by María Fernanda Ampuero. Valenciana [online]. 2024, vol.17, n.33, pp.33-57.  Epub May 31, 2024. ISSN 2007-2538.  https://doi.org/10.15174/rv.v16i33.738.

In this article, I propose that Pelea de gallos by Ampuero exhibits the naturalization of the inhuman, proper of gore capitalism, in socio-affective relationships of intimate life. Departing from Sayak Valencia, I explain how the stories show a symbolic economy that merchandizes feminine bodies and animals, turning the violence against them into a product of consumption. Then, I argue that the feminine characters become-animal-waste as a strategy to escape this codification. I believe that these developments redistribute the property of knowledge from humans to animals and nature and subvert the semantic and affective economy of consumption as a common horizon. These dehumanization forms allow the feminine bodies a partial and ephemeral reappropriation of the body that has been robbed.

Keywords : Latin American Literature; Violence; Gender; Becominganimal; Affection.