INSTITUTIONAL EROSION AND INSTINCTUAL REGRESSION: MECHANISMS OF NORMATIVE ORDER DISSOLUTION IN LORD OF THE FLIES

Aguirre-Lanegra A.J. · Acta Poetica (2026) · DOI: 10.19130/iifl.ap.2026.1/00x43w0sm278

Resumen

The growing fragility of institutional and symbolic frameworks in contemporary society highlights the urgent need to reconsider the foundations of normative order. In this context, literature becomes a privileged medium through which to interrogate the dissolution of legality and the emergence of regressive forms of social organization. This article analyzes Lord of the Flies by William Golding as a critical allegory of normative collapse, using a hermeneutic approach to examine how the erosion of symbolic and institutional structures enables the rise of new power dynamics rooted in violence, deindividuation, and drive regression. The analysis reveals that the novel does not portray mere chaos but a degenerate reorganization of order, governed by fear, exclusion, and symbolic violence. Golding suggests that civilization is a fragile construct, maintained by unstable mechanisms of legitimation and constantly threatened by latent destructive impulses. The findings position the novel as a narrative device that anticipates contemporary processes of institutional erosion and offers critical insights into the limits of law and the symbolic foundations of power under conditions of exception.

Instituciones: Universidad Privada del Norte