Working the fragment, being the ruin. Reading of a triptych in Antropofaguitas, by Gabriela Ponce Padilla

Abstract

The aesthetics of the fragmentary is the main characteristic of the story “Black Box” (from the book Antropofaguitas, 2013), by Gabriela Ponce Padilla. It is a narration composed of three stories that tell the lives of three Ecuadorian women in different historical and social circumstances. The black box is the device that puts together the three stories that, in terms of form, replicate the writings, testimonies and dialogues that allow reconstructing the last moments for the protagonists’ lives. The reflection upon ruin (together with the thought of María Zambrano, Walter Benjamin and others) allows us to understand the forms of resistance from which the stories of Ponce Padilla arise.