Abuses of Power, Corruption and Oblivion in Melba Escobar's La Casa de la Belleza
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/rl.v0i35.30705Keywords:
contemporary Colombian literature, literature and violence, corruption and villainy, postcolonial studiesAbstract
Melba Escobar's La Casa de la Belleza (2015) is interpreted as a portrayal of an elitist society with multiple defects, social inequalities and extraordinary corruption. This study shows how certain structural and legal injustices, such as the improper resolution of the rape and murder of a teenage girl, are actively provoked by politically powerful men. Methodologically, literary concepts of villainy are combined with theories on different types of violence and postcolonial, gender and memory studies to expose how male villains, especially the killer's father, abuse their power and use both bribery and violence to elevate themselves above the state system, represented by deliberately passive officials. The corruptibility of many of the characters and of a large sector of public institutions helps the antagonist to impose a defensive oblivion in order to distort the murder investigation.
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