Centrifugal Joy: Machines and Posthuman Corporeality in The Fox Upstairs and the Fox Downstairs

Abstract

This article showcases the world of Arguedas, grounded in dualities such as life and death, coastal vs. inland living, and fiction mingled with reality. Stagnaro examines the critiques proposed by John Beasley-Murray and José Antonio Giménez Micó, situating their assessments of Don Diego’s psychodelic reaction to the factory machine in Chapter 3 of The Fox From Up Above and the Fox From Down Below, by Arguedas. The essay locates poshumanism in social reality and reflects a culture changing in Peru via the cyborg machinery of the factory, as experienced by Don Diego. Capitalism plays a central role in the transformation of the Peruvian coast, and Stagnaro highlights the symbiotic relationship that develops between man and machine, using this as a lens to illustrate some of the overarching problems in Peru.