The Contagious Effects of Rural Violence: Social Pathologies and Injured Bodies in Blasco Ibáñez’s La barraca (The Cabin)

Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s La barraca (The Cabin, 1898) presents a vivid portrait of the struggles rural population Valencian huerta. When local people prevent plot land from being cultivated as an act popular resistance against landowning class, arrival Batiste Borrull provokes campaign marginalisation and aggression his family. The collective violence mob enacted by men, women children is unleashed daughter Roseta, sons, finally five-year-old Pascualet, who pushed into irrigation ditch hostile boys contracts fatal infection. mounting brutality that culminates in death young child becomes powerful manifestation social pathologies including primitivism, alcoholism entrenched poverty. This article explores ideological discursive contexts for at turn twentieth century, class-based theories degeneration crowd psychology. It also examines trope stagnant water courses through plain symbol contamination, echoing moral sickness society. Critics have argued protest novels, Ibáñez denounces idle degenerate bourgeoisie, following instead anarchist socialist argument vices proletariat are result capitalist exploitation (Fuentes 2009). By contrast, this proposes underscores primitivism pathological landless labourers, thereby reinforcing bourgeois foundation exposition injustice late nineteenth-century Spain.