Humain trop humain: Pour une chimie du déchet dans Warax de Pavel Hak

Abstract

The entry into the Anthropocene would manifest itself not only in the production of waste, dependent on the activities of a homo faber on the way to a homo oeconomicus, but also in a metamorphosis of the human being or, at least, of our understanding of his being. This reflection on the Being in the Anthropocene is the focus of Warax, a speculative novel by Pavel Hak (2009). This French-speaking Czech author, who emigrated to France as Milan Kundera, specialises in what is now known as the literature of violence. Warax is a novel of war, in which the avatars of the foul accumulate. Playing on the multiple meanings of waste, from the city to the military zone, it invites us to reflect on the status of human beings in an ultra-contemporary era: hasn't the Anthropocene led to a mutation of humanity and its perception under the sign of waste?