“A perpetual slaughterhouse”: dystopias in the narrative of Erich Rosenrauch

Abstract

Erich Rosenrauch Vogëlfanger (Vienna, 1931-England, 1978) published between 1974 and 1978 five novels that operate on dystopian structures. Chaos is part of the stories and is an intrinsic element in Clima de optimismo (1974), Salvaguardia (1974), En un país lejano (1976), Muertos útiles (1977) and La burra (1978). Dystopia is expressed from five perspectives: dictators who exercise totalitarianism ineptly, or, narrating the ongoing war, the end of institutions, negativity of the population explosion and the usefulness of the dead. The writer goes a step further when he proposes a sexual dystopia in La burra. The dystopian framework that surrounds Rosenrauch's novels addresses the exercise of power that is repeated in other fictitious territories: Osmania, Estolandia, Cantonia and Afrodite´s Theather. Rosenrauch´s dystopias come out, to the abuse of the mass media that automate the characters and the ineptitude of the authorities that simulate a democracy.