Censored, a feminist book tops sales in Argentina

After an attempted censorship by the Argentine far right, a novel published five years ago is back at the top of sales. Criticized by conservatives for sex scenes, this book denounces the scourge of femicide in the country.

Is a literary revolution emerging in Argentina? While around a hundred novels and non-fiction works risk being withdrawn from public high schools in the province of Buenos Aires following a campaign led by conservative organizations, a novel is breathing a breath of resistance.

Censorship from the far right

Scandalized by descriptions of sex scenes in these works, several conservative organizations have been lobbying for a week for around a hundred books to be removed from schools. A movement supported by Argentinian Vice-President Victoria Villarruel: “ It is about degradation and immorality. (…) Stop sexualizing our children, get out of classrooms those who promote this harmful program! “, she tweeted. The Natalio Morelli Foundation, a civil organization which claims to defend “the complete well-being of children and adolescents” and who maintains close relations with deputies of the far-right party in power Freedom advanceseven filed a complaint against the director of culture and education of the province of Buenos Aires.

Or, « the texts in question are not part of the compulsory readings in the program. But the organization considers the mere fact that they are accessible [dans les bibliothèques des lycées, soit à partir de 15 ans] as a risk for students. », Reports the newspaper El País America, translated by Courrier International.

A novel to denounce the scourge of femicide

Among the hundred books targeted by this censorship campaign, one book is particularly in the news. It is about Earth Eater (« Mange terre » in French) by Dolores Reyes, published in 2019. The author imagines a young clairvoyant capable of retracing the last hours of victims by eating the earth where their bodies were found.

Why is this book under threat of censorship? Vice-president Victoria Villarruel denounces the presence of two passages of a sexual nature. However, this novel is far from having an erotic aim since the novelist in reality denounces sexist and sexual violence, feminicides in poor neighborhoods and the inertia of the State and justice. As a reminder: 308 gender-based homicides were recorded in Argentina for the year 2023 according to Amnesty International.

This feminist commitment and the power of her pen earned Dolores Reyes the prestigious Pan-American Literary Prize. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. But already when it was released in 2019, the novel was the target of attacks. « This is how the digital packs and the violent impose their real bayons. Silence is one of the best allies of the violent, and censorship is the way to impose this silence »testified the novelist in a column published in The Country America.

Argentine literature in resistance

Faced with this renewed hatred and the threat of censorship, the Argentine literary world is mobilizing. On November 23, around a hundred authors took over the Picadero Theater in Buenos Aires and organized a collective reading of Earth Eater. The Argentinian daily Pagina 12 welcomes this initiative: “ a collective response to the violence of those who do not read, cut texts, try to sow fear among parents. Those who seek easy scandal, knee-jerk reaction, express erasure and who see pornography where there is literature ».

But the censorship controversy, followed by the significant mobilization of cultural actors, seems to have put the novel back in the spotlight. Five years after its publication, Earth Eater has become one of the best-selling books in Argentina. Several Argentine media even speak of a “Streisand effect”, taken from the name of the actress Barbra Streisand who had seen a photo of her house distributed on the Internet and by trying to have it removed, she caused the opposite effect, namely massive diffusion. Courrier International reports that Sigilo, the Argentinian publisher of Earth Eaterlaunches a new printing, i.e. the distribution of a seventeenth edition, of 3,500 copies. The novel has already sold more than 70,000 copies in Argentina.