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This article discusses the representation of physical and mental pain, torture and horror in literature. The canonical works of Praz, Auerbach and Genette figure as the theoretical framework of my reflections. I detect in twentieth-century Spanish American literature a return to plot and mimesis as an attempt to represent what cannot be represented: extreme individual experiences and sentiments. Although it is impossible to achieve complete empathy in a literary work, nevertheless the novels discussed employ narrative and structural techniques that are able to produce new perspectives concerning the horrible. They search for other positions than those offered by theoretical abstractions in the manner of Foucault and Bataille. To illustrate this I use fragments of three novels: Farabeuf, Rayuela and Rasero. These novels construct a mythical story, but they are, at the same time, conscious of the fictional character of their story; in this way, they simultaneously distance themselves from this myth and, in so doing, make horror and physical or mental pain tangible.
