Imagine the Pain, write Happiness: Lumpérica in the Present

Abstract

Lumpérica is an archive of the psychic pains that can be experienced by any subject exposed to domestic and national violence. The novel explores different fictional layers to undo authoritarianism in order to narrate it. At the same time that the novel is being written, describing itself as a necklace –a jewel of the voice–, the protagonist ceases to be a victim and reaches the morning light. This article reenacts Lumpérica’s narrative strategies within its own writing to put the novel in conversation with other performances held in the 21st century. This essay proposes how the joy of creating and writing can limit zones of pain and sacrifice.