Characterization Of The Fantastic-Vegetal in Two Agrotoxic Novels: Distancia de rescate (2014) & Después de la ira (2018)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the representation of transgenic botany in two agrotoxic novels, Distancia de rescate (2014) and Después de la ira (2018), through David Roas’ and Mark Fisher’s postulates on fear as an aesthetic experience in literatures of fantastic nature. From this point of view, the article proposes and illustrates certain characteristic features of the works that address environmental degradation –more specifically, that of the ecological niche of intoxicated or genetically modified flora– through resources of the weird and the eerie. It is concluded that the most disturbing stimulus of these narratives, both for the characters and for the readers, is that the force of capital, translated into violent interference with the commodities, has spread irreversibly and widely in the vegetable products that they are sown, harvested and consumed, a fact that contemporary novels collect and help to make visible by mechanisms transplanted from fantastic literature.