THE HYPERBOLE OF CONSUMPTION AND EXPLOITATION IN TENDER IS THE FLESH

A GLIMPSE THROUGH MARXIST LENS

Abstract

The paper aims to look at the Argentinian author Agustina Bazterrica’s work Tender is the Flesh in an attempt to extract and emphasise the Marxist hyperbole in the novel. The work is a dystopian piece of fiction, depicting one of the most horrendous of phenomena known to humankind – cannibalism. Not only is cannibalism widely accepted in this world, it is normalised, legalised, and backed by the government. The outbreak of a virus has rendered all animal meat poisonous to people which is why the mass-producinginstitutions of industrial farming and meat industry have decided to fill this gap with new kind of ‘special meat.’ Using Marxist analysis, the paper highlights how the consumption of human meat and all the processes involved in rendering them as dehumanised in order to be made fit for consumption can be read as a hyperbole for the contemporary world situation wherein the workers’ humanity and rights are being encroached upon and they are being consumed by capitalism and the profit-based economy.