Spanish Culture and Identity
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Abstract
Abstract
La comemadre (2010) by Roque Larraquy is a novel that articulates the category of monstrosity in different ways and levels, from the thematic to the structural. I analyze particularly the monstrosity of the machine that is developed by a group of doctors in the first part of the novel, which is used to decapitate people and make heads talk within the seconds they remain alive after being separated from the bodies. The monstrous machine takes on eerie (Fisher 2018) and abject (Kristeva 1988) features. Its composition as an oral-anal technomonster, that devours and evacuate the biopolitically disqualified bodies of terminal patients, constitutes a teratological representation of the national power as eugenic, positivist and predatory. The eerie is understood by Fisher (2018) as the disturbing sensation articulated around the question on the agency or the unknown entity that causes an action. In the novel, it is observed particularly around the origin of the sentences uttered by the heads: what or who is talking through them? On the other hand, abject characterizes the monstrous dimension of the machine as a devouring maternal body: it is the “mother that eats” —reversal of “comemadre”— that ritualizes a fantasy of imaginary incorporation. Finally, I stand that the novel also introduces another notion of monstrosity as biopolitical resistance (Moraña 2017; Negri 2007) against this oppression, giving voice to the monster that challenges the established order.
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@article{Dinamarca2026quina,
title = {La máquina monstruosa, de lo espeluznante a la abyección. Una lectura de La comemadre (2010) de Roque Larraquy},
author = {Rodrigo Ignacio González Dinamarca},
journal = {Pasavento Revista de Estudios Hispánicos},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.37536/preh.2026.14.1.2971},
url = {https://doi.org/10.37536/preh.2026.14.1.2971}
}FAQ
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