Fragmented Bodies of Latin America: The Case of Mano de obra by Diamela Eltit and Passageiro do fim do dia by Rubens Figueiredo

Abstract

This article analyzes the novels Passageiro do fim do dia (2010), by Brazilian writer Rubens Figueiredo, and Mano de obra (2002), by Chilean writer Diamela Eltit in their use of textual strategies that relinquish the objective portrayal of gruesome violence as a marker of the inequalities that characterize the social contexts of these narratives. Through the  fragmentation of the social, psychological, and physical dimensions of the characters, Figueiredo and Eltit expose forms of oppression framed in a mode of accumulation of capital and exploitation of labor. Using dialectical structures of inclusion and exclusion, the emphasis on the physicality of the body emerges as a palpable reference of social inferiorization and segregation of the characters.