The (Im)possibility of Recognising Invisible Danger: Parallels between Domestic and Slow Violence in Verónica Gerber Bicecci’s La compañía

In Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, Rob Nixon explores a need ‘to engage a different kind of violence, a violence that is neither spectacular nor instantaneous, but rather incremental and accretive’ (2). Slow violence is introduced as a process that happens so gradually, one does not notice its presence, and is subsequently not considered with the same urgency as catastrophe or other forms of explosive or immediate events. By drawing inspiration from the idea of this gradual, almost invisible violence, this paper explores Verónica Gerber Bicecci’s La compañía to examine violence within the domestic setting and its similarities to environmental degradation. La compañía, a rewrite of Amparo Dávila’s El huésped, explores domestic violence through the presence of an unwanted houseguest in a Mexican town destroyed by an oil company, allowing us to unpack the parallels and complexities present in the two forms of danger. Through a critical analysis of La compañía, I will examine themes of power dynamics, emotional distress, dehumanisation and the persistent presence of self-doubt that appear in both forms of violence. By juxtaposing the subtle nature of slow violence with the often overlooked and unnoticed traces of domestic abuse portrayed in Bicecci’s work, this paper will investigate these overlaps and prompt a critical inquiry into the (im)possibilities of recognising invisible dangers.