Dystopia and Protagonism of the Domestic Worker in the Novel Luxúria, by Fernando Bonassi

Abstract

Assuming that despite being one of the most numerous working classes in Brazil, the domestic worker is historically underrepresented in national fiction, or represented following stereotyped models, this work analyzes the presence of the diarist character in the dystopian novel Luxúria, by Fernando Bonassi (2015). In principle a supporting character, without even having a name – one of the recurrent characteristics of domestic workers in Brazilian novels of the 20th century – the character assumes the main role in the plot. A late novelty in Brazilian literary history, facilitated by the characteristics of the dystopian genre: by exacerbating the ultra-subjectivity (FEATHERSTONE, 2017) of the character, a subjectivity split because it is not even experienced, very typical of precarious workers in contemporary times, the narrator stresses about the character a heavy load of violence and discomfort from dystopia, understood here as an aesthetic recreation of the present time. Thus, victim of all the exploitation of the narrated story, relegated to a space of invisibility by her bosses, the character ends up being displaced to the center of the narrative by virtue of the literary genre, keeping the key to reading the novel.