Capitalism's Waste: Debt-Bondage, Landscape, and Extractivism in 7 Prisoneiros
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48162/rev.34.062Keywords:
landscape, debt-bondage, extractivism, capitalismAbstract
The expression, selva de pedra, is one of the most common epithets used to describe the megalopolis that is São Paulo, Brazil. This selva de pedra is characterized by a landscape of high-rises that indicate the triumph of modernity, but at the same time hides capitalism’s waste as well as cruellest mechanisms. For example, debt-bondage is a capitalistic system of mechanisms which subjugate and exploit individuals in a manifestation of modern-day slavery. That being said, debt-bondage is a rare topic in today’s Brazilian cultural production but has come to Surface recently in the social sphere due the film, 7 prisoneiros (2021) that deals with the exploitation of individuals in the urban landscape of São Paulo. In this manner, the landscape reflects the metamorphosis that occurs in the characters who are exploited in the film. In this article, I use the theoretical framework of Teresa P.R. Caldeira and her notion of fortified enclaves, as well as Zygmunt Bauman’s sociological discourse to analyse how the urban landscape (de)constructs the subjectivity of the characters in Sete prisoneiros. Therefore, one can delineate how debt-bondage is a by-product of the extractivism and how this system exploits the individual and how this system is one that hides in the shadows of the immense selva de pedra that is São Paulo.
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