Sounds, Violence, and Power Structures in Among the Lost by Emiliano Monge

Abstract

This article analyses the auditive dimension in Emiliano Monge’s Among the Lost (2018). I argue that the sounds are connected to different forms of violence, and that their use in the novel destabilizes the rigidity of power relations between victims and perpetrators. The representation of sounds and silence concretizes the violence towards the victims, and reveals the transient nature of categories and positions within the structure of violence and power. The difference in power is symbolized by the difference in speech volume and access to environmental sounds between criminals and migrants, an allusion to the systemic violence of Monge’s border zone. Volume and intensity also refer to concrete subjective violence towards the kidnapped migrants, who are both physically and mentally tortured. The sounds and their connotations illustrate that the violent superstructure is independent of the individuals committing crimes, because they turn out to be disposable pawns, parts of a criminal system that transcends the individual.