Ashes, dirt, and pigs

Ana Paula Maia’s subaltern workers

Abstract

Based on reflections about subalternity and the way this concept is experienced in the peripheries of capitalism, the present article intends to analyze the theme of the marginalization process in the characters of the Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia. In order to carry out this research, the main focus will be on the works that constitute the saga of the brute men, namely: Entre rinha de cachorros e porcos abatidos (2009a), O trabalho sujo dos outros (2009b) and Carvão animal (2011) For this investigation, following the trail of subalternity, the formation of these characters from the brutal violence that strikes them is notorious, which brings as a consequence of the emptiness and the disillusionment of the world. In accordance with this process of deformation, the work emerges as an impetuous engine for shaping the identity of these men, because from the labor they perform, which demands from these characters a posture of submission, they begin to resemble animals more than humans. To build this cosmology of the debris of the urban centers, we will also inquire how the author manages to articulate the theme of marginalization to the process of deformation of the humanity of these characters. For this research, we will bring to discussion the contributions of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (2010) and Giorgio Agamben (2002).