FROM PUBLIC TO PRIVATE: THE HIERARCHIES OF VIOLENCE IN EARTHLINGS, BY SAYAKA MURATA

Abstract

In modern times, power relations and violence take subtle forms, integrating into other social spheres and subjecting individuals to self-exploitation, excess, and making them prone to physical, verbal, and sexual violence. In this context, Sayaka Murata, a renowned contemporary Japanese writer, portrays individuals who are not represented by pre-established categories of gender and sexuality, thus making them victims of a system that oppresses at both macro and micro levels. The main objective of this research is to analyze the violence suffered by the character Natsuki in the work "Earthlings" (2021), in three categories: public, familial, and sexual. Of a bibliographic nature, the works of Michel Foucault (2021), Byung-Chul Han (2017), Guacira Lopes Louro (2013), and Everton de Oliveira Maraldi (2014) were used as the main theoretical bases. This work arose from the scarcity of research on Sayaka Murata's works in Brazil, in contrast to the increasing number of translated works. The article was written in three parts: first, a brief summary of the work; then, a contextualization of the work, biopolitics, and the declining birth rate in Japan; and finally, a discussion of the contributors to the sexual violence Natsuki suffered, as well as the psychological and physical consequences that persist into adulthood. The conclusion is that Sayaka Murata's work portrays how a victim of macro- and micro-violence reconfigures herself in society, while dealing with trauma, silencing, and the constant social pressures that seek to normalize her.