MURIEL RUKEYSER’S THE BOOK OF THE DEAD AND THE REPRESENTATIONAL CHALLENGES OF SLOW VIOLENCE

Begoña Simal

doi:10.12795/REN.2022.i26.07

Autores/as

Begoña Simal Universidade da Coruña https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6303-0010

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12795/REN.2022.i26.07

Palabras clave:

The Book of the Dead, Rubbish Theory, Waste Studies, Waste Theory, Muriel Rukeyser, Violencia lenta

Resumen

Los sucesos narrados por Muriel Rukeyser en The Book of the Dead (1938) constituyen un buen ejemplo de lo que Rob Nixon denomina “violencia lenta,” un tipo de violencia nada espectacular, de progresivo “desgaste”, que no es fácilmente trasladable una obra literaria. Este artículo estudia las estrategias usadas por Rukeyser para superar esos obstáculos a la hora de representar literariamente la “violencia lenta”: optando, primero, por un patchwork de géneros, eligiendo, además, la estructura peculiar del poema-secuencia y, por último, dando visibilidad al proceso de “wastification” o “basurización” de los mineros que protagonizan el poema. Leído desde la óptica de las recientes corrientes críticas conocidas como Waste Studies y Waste Theory, The Book of the Dead se erige como una de las primeras obras poéticas en examinar de forma conjunta la materialidad de los desechos tóxicos (polvo de sílice) y la “basurización” humana (Rubbish Theory).

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