The dismantling of factories. Contemporary ruins in the labor universe of Made in Spain (2014)

Abstract

This article carries out an analysis of the novel Made in Spain (2014) by Javier Mestre from the problematic of the relocation of factories. The study is divided into four axes that allow us to relate aspects of the sociological tradition with textual operations. Thus, in the first place, we approach the confection of the two main characters and understand through them how the so-called "coaching of conscience" works, a social phenomenon that turns the worker into a demonized category. On the other hand, we observe how the two universes of reference of the novel (bourgeois and workers) are inserted within a social and cultural debate about the representation of the working class. The latter is described as a paradoxical, complex place, damaged in the first instance by the processes of relocation. Together with the characters, we also notice the treatment that Mestre gives to the transformation of labor spaces (the factories). The author carries out a bidirectional consideration that contemplates the effects in the country of origin (Spain) and the situations of impoverishment and exploitation in the country of arrival (Morocco). Finally, we analyze the political meaning of the novel's ending, which is presented in terms of failure. The author dismantles any option for individual change and points to the general framework of the system, whose logic requires a critical and communitarian movement that denounces the effects of relocation. Made in Spain is, in short, a political device that, through literary support, takes a critical stance against the processes of dismantling and remodeling of labor that have taken place in recent decades.