Tecnoestetics maternities. Reproductive imperatives in Isabel Zapata, In Vitro (2021), and Samanta Schweblin, “Conservas” (2017)

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze the technical processes in Latin American literature that make possible the new reproductive forms and the technological modes that condition the appearance of a new discourse on motherhood: the technologies of the maternal. To this end, the article traces the correlation between the reproductive imperative and the technocratic imperative in the autobiographical account of Isabel Zapata, In Vitro, and in the story “Conservas” by Samantha Schweblin. Therefore, this article investigates the consequences of the imperatives to configure an experience of motherhood codified by a maternal sensorium inscribed in a historical and technical way. The article is divided into two parts. The first part is an analysis of the procreative and contraceptive methods in the two works as techno-aesthetic practices. The second part studies the logics of production that underlie the reproductive and technocratic imperatives. This reflection allows us to analyze the function of techno-aesthetic devices to contribute to the literary criticism of biotechnological devices and to feminist studies of science.