When a habit meets a habit at the city dump: persistence and adaptability of habit in Única mirando al mar (2010)

Abstract

Fernando Contreras Castro’s novel Única mirando al mar (1993 and 2010) is a bitter, scathing social critique of Costa Rica’s government which occasionally remembers its duty to its tax payers and environment. Re-written in 2010 after the closure of Río Azul, a landfill near San José, it explores the way this action affected the population of the landfill, locally known as the buzos (scuba divers). The critiques of the novel address primarily the buzos’ resilience and the complexity of the relationship between the buzos’ society and the rest of the country. This study will consider the buzos’ society as a social order based on habit and trace its adaptability and persistence in face of multiple changes to the buzos’ life. To this end, I will use the theory of posthegemony with a particular focus on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habit and habitus to explore the adaptability and persistence of the buzos’ habitus as reflected in habitual practices, rituals, and ritual language. I will analyse the 2010 version of the novel, published after the closure of the landfill.