The body as a symbol of violence and monstrosity in "Sacrificios humanos", by María Fernanda Ampuero

ABSTRACT

This essay delves into the literary fiction of "Sacrificios Humanos" by Ecuadorian author María Fernanda Ampuero, exploring the impact of violence, pain, and monstrosity on her protagonists, especially the female ones. The purpose is to analyze the characteristics that amplify the prejudices surrounding the protagonists, unraveling the narrative complexity of Ampuero's work. This complexity also allows us to address the treatment of the body in the author's writing. To achieve this objective, the study inventories the conception of the female body from Western philosophy, drawing on authors such as Plato, Baruch Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jean-Luc Nancy. With this theoretical framework, the analysis proceeds to examine the stories in Ampuero's book to understand how, through denunciation and a highly personal poetics, the author portrays the city itself as a failed promise of modernity.