Mester

This essay is concerned with fiction in terms of gender as it relates to femicide, a phenomenon largely associated with the Latin American region. In the realm of culture (literature and art), fiction not only portrays femicide but also provides a language to understand the bodily reality of gender based violence, an occurrence which simulates and demarks the fragility within a socialized fiction like gender. When it comes to depicting atrocities like femicide, one is always phased with the question of ethics. Is there a “right way” to depict that which is intrinsically wrong? I will explore these issues through the often called Gothic horror novel Hurricane Season by Mexican author Fernanda Melchor and the performance/installation pieces “Jardín de flores” and “Monumento a las desaparecidas” by Guatemalan Regina José Galindo. I analyze these two works to demonstrate the varying and opposing manners of portraying femicide and gender based violence. While it is perhaps productive to consider the ethics of representation in art and literature,