Poéticas de las “niñerías perversas”: representación de la infancia en Rita Indiana y Zoé Valdés

Abstract

The article examines the representation of childhood in contemporary Caribbean literature through the concept of "poetics of perverse childhood." By analyzing Papi (2005) by Rita Indiana Hernández and El pie de mi padre (2002) by Zoé Valdés, the study explores how the authors challenge the conventional depiction of childhood through characters such as the drug trafficker's daughter, Alma Desamparada, and Black Hole. To this end, the analysis delves into experiences marked by violence, abuse, and the deviation from normative sexuality as defining and distinctive elements of the characters' identities. The main theoretical references for this study are Julia Kristeva and Michel Foucault, as their reflections on abjection and the typology of monstrous, corrective, and onanist individuals provide a framework for exploring this emerging poetics.