The “Desayuno Perfecto” by Alejandra Kamiya: love rr unpaid work?

Abstract

Alejandra Kamiya's short story highlights the protagonist's efforts to prepare the family's first meal as an impeccable rite. Written in the second-person singular and set mostly in the space of the house, the plot plays with the reader with its voices and silences, presences and absences, in such a way that it invites us to reflect on the limits between affection and exploitation. A discussion is proposed in which we analyze whether the order established in the narrative is love or unpaid work. To achieve this goal, the dialog includes theories of literature XAVIER, 2012), geography (TUAN, 1980;1983), philosophy (BEAUVOIR, 2010; FEDERICI, 2017; 2019) archaeology (HERNANDO, 2012) and sociology (GUIMARÃES et alli, 2011; RODRÍGUEZ ENRIQUEZ (2015); SALVADOR (2007). When domestic relations are problematized through literature, which is a humanizing art according to Antonio Candido (2011), we have the possibility of making them visible and denaturalizing the discourses that surround them.