<b>The Nature of Anxiety: Precarious City Lives in <i>La piqueta</i> and <i>La trabajadora</i></b> // La naturaleza de la ansiedad: Vidas urbanas precarias en <i>La piqueta</i> y <i>La trabajadora</i>

Authors

  • Susan Marie Divine College of Charleston

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37536/ECOZONA.2018.9.2.2390

Keywords:

Antonio Ferres, Elvira Navarro, housing crisis, social realism, landscape, ecocriticism, Spain, crisis, urban theory, affect // Antonio Ferres, desahucio, realismo social, ecocrítica, España, teoría urbana, afecto

Abstract

      Separated by more than fifty years, the novels La piqueta by Antonio Ferres (1959) and La trabajadora by Elvira Navarro (2014) parallel each other in location and theme. Ferres places his novel in the chabolas of Orcasitas in the late 1950s while Navaro’s novel is set primarily in Aluche in 2011. Both novels critique the southern periphery during times of restructuring and crisis through descriptions of and movement through landscapes that infuse, superimpose, and ultimately are confused with the body and mind of the protagonists. These movements through Madrid’s center and periphery reveal incongruences between imagined landscapes and actual lived spaces. The former, constructed through tropes and metaphors of the natural environment serve as anchors of communal and individual identity, and become unmoored in the reality of actual lived spaces. This confrontation provokes anxiety and the breaking down of community and self. 

 

Resumen

     Separadas por más de cincuenta años, las novelas La piqueta de Antonio Ferres (1959) y La trabajadora de Elvira Navarro (2014) se parecen en situación geográfica y tema. Ferres localizó su novela en las chabolas madrileñas de Aluche a finales de los años 50, mientras Navarro ubicó la suya en el barrio periférico de Aluche en 2011. Ambas novelas critican la construcción de la periferia de Madrid durante épocas de crisis política y económica a través de descripciones de y movimientos por paisajes que se infunden, se superponen y se confunden con el cuerpo y mente de los protagonistas. Además, los movimientos entre los paisajes imaginados y los espacios reales ponen al descubierto las incongruencias entre ambos. El anterior se construye a través de los tropos y metáforas del mundo natural capaces de anclar la identidad individual y comunal. Cuando estas nociones del mundo imaginado se desamarran provoca una ansiedad y el desmoronamiento del ser y de la comunidad.

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Author Biography

Susan Marie Divine, College of Charleston

Dr. Susan Divine received her PhD from the University of Arizona in 2008 in Spanish literature. She is currently an assistant professor of Spanish at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.

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Published

2018-10-24

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2018): Mythology and Ecocriticism: A Natural Encounter

Section

Articles: General Section

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