Hyper-Eroticism as a Source of Spiritual and Material Agency in Trilogía sucia de La Habana

Resum

In Trilogía sucia de La Habana, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez has defied traditional representations of the sexual body in Latin American literature by depicting the erotic as an agent of meditation and multiplication within an environment of deprivation. The author explores the diverse ways in which the erotic is a means by which to deconstruct subjectivity and provide a political critique against social oppression. The narration is situated within a socialist Cuban context of surveillance during the special period, and depicts the many acts of survival its citizens engage in on a daily basis amidst an economic crisis where basic products are scarce. With the absence of material goods, as well as certain political freedoms, the characters in the novel manifest their continuous desires by engaging in a hyper-production of the erotic as a source of power. While recounting personal stories of love and sex, the characters meditate on their social condition in addition to their own private desires. Ultimately, in accord with eroticism as a weapon of social change and critique, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez acknowledges the body traditionally dismissed in dominant Western thought and inscribes new representations where it can be beautiful while being impoverished, artistically tormented and imperfect. Subsequently, this paper analyses hyper-eroticism as a source of reflection and material agency, leading to new inscriptions of erotic potential as a source for social change.