From Abundance to Scarcity: 21st Century Latin American Dystopias

The step from production to consumption of goods constitutes a paradigm shift of great significance to material culture. Consequently, the production of objects becomes an end in itself and consumption is proclaimed as a fundamental law in contemporary societies. In this text, I demonstrate how one can discern a collective imagination in the 21st century in which scarcity is imposed as an omnipresent atmosphere, in contrast to what could be defined as a discourse of the preponderant abundance of Latin American fiction at the end of the last century. I will analyze four recent novels in order to trace this evolution, probing the causes and historic significance of this paradigm shift.