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The Question of Violence in Luisa Valenzuela's Fiction

Luisa Valenzuela, the renowned contemporary Argentinean writer, dealt with subjects of violence and oppression during the historical episode known as Dirty War, which occurred in Argentina during the 1970s. The central point of interest of this paper will be a feminist reading of two of her collections of stories, “A Change of Weapons” and “Simetrías”, focusing on issues of female oppression by structures of power, primarily embodied in ideological apparatuses of the Argentinean state of that period. These stories deal with repression, subjugation and violence emerging not only out of totalitarian regime in question but also out of wider cultural frame, primarily in regard to the construction of gender through language, itself structuring the appurtenant social order. This reading will be based upon Hegelian dichotomy of master and slave, in regard to issues of dominance and subjugation, further developing this subject upon Lacan’s reading of the dialectical relations, emphasizing the desire for “missing object”, i.e. “object a” (in regard to Lacan’s theory of sexuality according to which female is necessarily construed as the lacking Other). Thus, the female Other is simultaneously lacking in as well as desiring authority, language and power constituting the dominant male discourse, which underlines symbolic relations of power in Valenzuela’s fiction.

Luisa Valenzuela, 'A Change of Weapons', 'Simetrías', master-slave dichotomy, 'objet a'

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