Políticas de lo gótico: sujeto marginal y cuerpos discapacitados en la narrativa gótica de Mariana Enríquez

Abstract

Gothic literature represents what lies in the margins of society, with the forbidden and impossible. Following Jacques Rancière ideas on the politics of literature, this thesis explores the political implications of the Gothic narrative of Argentinian author Mariana Enríquez by analyzing the representation of marginalized subjects. In Mariana Enríquez's Gothic narrative, marginality and disability embody society's fears and anxieties by becoming monstruous. Nevertheless, this monstrosity is one created by the society that fears it. Enríquez's monsters are a product of a society where institutions themselves have become monstrous: the military dictatorship of the 70's and 80's ignores the law and disappears thousands of people, while the wealthy elites are allowed to utilize the bodies of marginalized groups for their own benefit. Disability becomes monstruous when it refuses to adapt to social ideas of normalcy. In "Nuestra parte de noche", the reinterpretation of disability by the religious sect of The Order ultimately serves their own interests: to control the bodies of their followers.