Representations of neoliberalism in contemporary Peruvian narrative

Abstract

Although there are important academic works about the representation ―in the fictional narrative― of Latin American societies shaped by the neoliberal system since the 1970s, there is a void about Peruvian literature. Despite the fact that in the international consensus Peru is presented as an exemplary country since it implemented the neoliberal economic model, said system meant the elimination of social and labor rights and the shrinking of the State ―to the point of not being a counterweight to power or corruption of economic agents or de facto powers in a free market scenario. Following Wendy Brown, neoliberalism is a global phenomenon that implies an economic policy, a form of governance and an order of reason; in this order, the economy is the measure to assess spheres and activities previously not subject to that criterion. Thus, it is pertinent to analyze how such aspects are represented ―and with what metaphors― in narrative since the 1990s. In a corpus of novels by Pilar Dughi, Victoria Guerrero and Carlos Villacorta, and short stories by Ulises Gutiérrez Llantoy, Carlos Yushimito and Karina Pacheco are key elements of the narrative: precarious work and the precarious, the reduction of the State, escape and economic success, inequality, the maximization of the value of capital, the managerial vision of things, the speeches of the entrepreneurship and investment attraction, among others.