Cancer and escape from the body: poetics of concealment and politics of vulnerability in "Medicinas para quebrantamientos del halcón" (2014), by Eduardo Chirinos

Keywords: Eduardo Chirinos, cancer, metaphor, vulnerability, concealment

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the biological metaphors of cancer in Medicinas para quebrantamientos del halcón (2014), by the Peruvian poet Eduardo Chirinos, based on a textual and hermeneutic analysis with an interdisciplinary approach. We propose that Chirinos articulates, on the one hand, a poetics of concealment, based on strategies of escape that evoke evasion and camouflage, and, on the other hand, a politics of vulnerability, reconfiguring fragility as a space of resistance. In the first part of the analysis, we study the metaphors of cancer, the metastasis, and the bodily metamorphosis to show how the poet constructs an imaginary of the oncological body through the multiplicity of voices, the detachment of the sick body, and the openness to the unknown. In the second part, we examine how the author's hearing impairment intervenes in his construction of otherness, establishing an affiliation with the fragile that reinforces his politics of vulnerability. The results of the study suggest that Chirinos' work not only challenges orthodox conceptions of health and well-being but also posits illness and dysfunction as constitutive dimensions of contemporary human identity.

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Author Biography

Ana Lucía Martínez, University of Cambridge

Es docente e investigadora en estudios latinoamericanos. Es candidata a doctora en Estudios Latinoamericanos por la Universidad de Cambridge; magíster en Español y Literaturas Latinoamericanas por la Universidad de Colorado Boulder, y bachiller en Humanidades con mención en Literatura Hispanoamericana por la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Ha enseñado español, literatura, cultura visual, escri­tura académica, investigación y análisis del discurso en universidades del Perú, Estados Unidos y Reino Unido. Su investigación se centra en los cruces entre estética, ruina y memoria en la literatura y el arte visual contemporáneo de América Latina, con especial interés en el pensa­miento ambiental, las humanidades médicas, las materialidades resi­duales y los paisajes postdictatoriales.

Published
2025-08-20
How to Cite
Lucía Martínez, A. (2025). Cancer and escape from the body: poetics of concealment and politics of vulnerability in "Medicinas para quebrantamientos del halcón" (2014), by Eduardo Chirinos. Boletín de la Academia Peruana de la Lengua, (77), 89-131. Retrieved from https://www.revistas.apl.org.pe/index.php/boletinapl/article/view/1362
Issue
No 77 (2025): Enero - Junio
Section
Articles
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