A propósito de la simulación, cuerpos combatientes y derecho femenino a la violencia: Una lectura de Beya, le viste la cara a dios de Gabriela Cabezón Cámara

MAURO GRECO

Cambridge

Congreso; Repair, Resistance and Resilience in Latin America; 2022

Postgraduate in Latin American Studies (PILAS)-Society of Latin American Studies (SLAS)

This conference proposes an analysis of the novel Beya, le viste la cara a Dios (Beya, you saw God’s face, 2011) by the Argentine writer Gabriela Cabezón Cámara. The text narrates the story of Beya, a woman who is kidnapped and sexually exploited in a sex-trafficking house located in the slums of Lanus district, in Buenos Aires province. In order to analyse her survival tactics and her subsequent escape from the Lanus puticlub, I draw upon on the work of three distinct feminist authors: Mary Gaitskill, Sharon Marcus, and Virginie Despentes. What arouses my interest in their works is their common identification with a particular feminist strand, the feminism of rape prevention. In this vein, I analyse how simulation, fighting bodies, and the female right to violence can turn into feasible ways of resisting a radically unjust environment. Ultimately, what I am trying to scrutinise here is the possibility of a political theory of female — and feminist — violence.