Acceso usuarios
Kathryn Houston
The fictional town of La Matosa, where the novel takes place, relies on repressive myth making, legends, and gossip as a means to maintain social control. In this paper, I will connect the concept of the repressive hypothesis to the concepts of parrhēsia and Cynicism to analyze how the two exist in contrast, and howparrhēsia can act as a solution to, or a reversal of the repressive hypothesis-one that is collective yet requires sacrifice and fearless representation. The novel is divided into eight chapters-or eight very long paragraphs due to the novel's limited use of punctuation-that tell the story, or the confession, of characters who recount the murder of la Bruja, the local healer. Applying Foucault's theories to a fictional text that notes the systemic lies engrained in a patriarchal society that sees extreme instances of gendered violence-and requires radical social change-acts as a case study of the possible effects of Cynicism and parrhēsia.
