Cartoneras Publishers and Literature Outside the Canon: A Critical Look at the Margins of the Publishing World

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the many possibilities for intervention of the cardboard book movement, an international network formed by independent publishers who use recycled cardboard to make the covers of their books. Starting from a presentation of the historical context out of which emerged the pioneering Eloísa Cartonera – an artisanal publisher that employs cardboard scavengers and individuals on the margins of society to edit works of beginning authors as well as those of great names of Latin-American literature – the text presents a reflection on the creative power of otherized subjects and on the processes of the subalternized on the periphery of capitalism making their voices heard. Through an ample collection of data from different sources (books, catalogs, blogs, websites and interviews), an attempt was made to construct a more complex image of the universe of cartoneras publishers and to discuss the impact of the intervention of this cooperative and solidary network of publishers in the processes of reconfiguration of the literary field. This is a descriptive study based on different publishing experiences to try to attain a greater understanding of the current disputes over the dominion of society's expressive machines, in particular those that traditionally guaranteed the production and diffusion of hegemonic representations through the book object.