Abstract

GARCIA RIVERA, René Camilo. Condición humana e ingravidez: antropogénesis en la novela El hombre, la hembra, el hambre, de Daína Chaviano. Comunicación [online]. 2025, vol.34, n.1, pp.4-16. ISSN 1659-3820.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18845/rc.v34i1.8083.

This article reviews the novel El hombre, la hembra, el hambre (The Man, the Female, the Hunger) (1998) by Cuban writer Daína Chaviano (Havana, 1957). The literary analysis aims to characterize the anthropogenic process in the narrative, that is, the constitution as human of the simulacra of the person represented by the characters; in particular, it aims to identify the elements of the sociohistorical context that condition hominization in the diegetic universe of fiction. Therefore, the object of this paper is to describe the process of construction of the human in the novel El hombre, la hembra, el hambre, by Daína Chaviano; especially, to detail the elements that configure the becoming of Claudia/ La Mora. As a starting point, the two elements leading the process of hominization of the protagonist are identified: on the one hand, the influence of the sociohistorical context -the crisis of the Special Period in Cuba, a consequence of the Soviet collapse in 1990- as a catalyst in the noticed ontological changes; on the other hand, an existential predisposition defined by the lack of vital horizon of the individual, a situation that drives the character to ''float'' by the random conditions of the context. The work is supported by the theoretical references of authors such as Giorgio Agamben (Lo abierto: el hombre y el animal) (The Open: Man and Animal), Odette CasamayorCisneros (Soñando, cayendo y flotando: itinerarios ontológicos a través de la narrativa cubana postsoviética) (Dreaming, Falling and Floating: Ontological Itineraries Through the Postsoviet Cuban Narrative) and, Friedrich Nietzsche (Ecce homo); and in the critical reading of researchers such as Ivonne Sánchez Becerril (Consideraciones teóricocríticas para el estudio de la narrativa cubana del periodo especial) (TheoreticalCritical Considerations for the Study of the Cuban Narrative of the Special Period), Elizbeta Sklodowska (Invento, luego resisto: El Período Especial en Cuba como experiencia y metáfora (19902015)) (I Invent, Then I Resist: The Special Period in Cuba as Experience and Metaphor) and, Nanne Timmer (Y los sueños sueños son: sujeto y representación en tres novelas cubanas de los noventa) (And Dreams Are Dreams: Subject and Representation in Three Cuban Novels of the 1990s). Regarding the categories, the article addresses the concepts of openness, animalizing influence, health instinct, and anthropological machine.

Keywords : Anthropogenesis; human condition; hominization; Cuban literature; Special Period in Cuba.

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