Extinction or Survival of Species: Ants, Tataguas, and Mosquitoes in the Work of Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1344/452f.2024.30.9

Keywords:

Insects, Cuban literature, Posthuman feminism, Women writing, Latin America

Abstract

In the literary imagination of Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas (Havana, 1991) insects appear in various places. In Días de hormigas (Days of the Ants) the trail of ants indicates a direction to a form of life and freedom in the midst of a landscape of devastation, a landscape that also returns in Extintos. Aquí no vuelan mariposas (Extintos. Butterflies Don't Fly Here) (2018), while in La puta y el hurón (The Whore and the Ferret) (2020) the mosquitoes serve as a formulation of resistance to a violent and patriarchal order. In this article I study the role of insects in the work of this young Cuban writer and performer and I affirm that, despite the scenarios of collapse and ruins, the writer also builds an idea of ​​futurity and of community. Drawing on the work of Rosi Braidotti I argue that the abject, the liminal and a particular temporality are intertwined in the becoming-insect and the becoming-woman for an articulation of resilience. Through alliances between “infra-beings”, becoming molecule and becoming imperceptible, I maintain that the becoming-insect functions as a mode of resistance and dissent.

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Published

2024-01-31

How to Cite

Timmer, N. (2024). Extinction or Survival of Species: Ants, Tataguas, and Mosquitoes in the Work of Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas. 452ºF. Revista De Teoría De La Literatura Y Literatura Comparada, (30), 165–181. https://doi.org/10.1344/452f.2024.30.9

Issue

No. 30 (2024): Entomologic Drive and Invertebrate Imaginaries in Latin America and the Caribbean

Section

Monograph

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Nanne Timmer

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