Trash as Aesthetic and Theme in Elvira Navarro's _La trabajadora_

This essay focuses on one example of a collective desire to articulate new ways of thinking about and inhabiting urban space: Elvira Navarro’s 2014 _La trabajadora_, a novel that directly confronts the human cost of austerity measures in Spain by addressing the indignation experienced by those whose life plans have been altered by economic instability and labor precarity. Specific attention is paid to the notable presence in contemporary works of urban social criticism of references to garbage, trash, waste, and detritus of all kinds. In many of these works, garbage and its recycling appear as recurring themes but also function at the conceptual level to propose an aesthetic all their own. _La trabajadora_ is a direct response to the material conditions of the city and serves as a prime example of art that envisions the reuse and repurposing of refuse within the urban space it occupies.