The Law of Hospitality for the Formation of a Community of Saints in “Las Pléyades” by Carolina Sanín

Abstract

In this paper, I intend to investigate the ways in which the Colombian author Carolina Sanín represents the notion of the living in her text “Las Pléyades” from her book Somos luces abismales (2020). Under the question of the bios, Sanín analyzes, imagines and invents a language to say animal life, human life, the life of the parasite and the non-life of the virus, placing emphasis not on the being itself of each one, but on the contrary, in the ways of relating to each other. Based on the figuration of the virus as an invader, the author wonders about the different possible forms of life and establishes implicit dialogues with notions such as the puppet (Derrida: 2010), a life (Deleuze: 2007), the living (Heidegger: 2007), the animal (Giorgi: 2014) and with the ideas of community, immunity and biopolitics (Espósito: 2006; 2009). In “Las Pléyades”, the power of bodies in relationship derives in the institution of a law of hospitality for the conformation of a community of saints, that is, for a community of the living.