Women Authorship in Horror Literature: Denouncement and Counterattack in Brazilian and Spanish Works

Abstract

Adopting the perspective of horror as an autonomous genre, with of strategies, procedures and themes that aim to produce feelings related to the term horrere (Latin for “to shudder”, “to shiver”), the article intends to investigate nuances of women authorship through two fronts: denunciation and counterattack. To this end, the text consists of a section dedicated to conceptualizing horror as a literary genre, as well as its possible intersections with what Teresa López-Pellisa called the inappropriate/inappropriatable fantastic. Next, in the section called “Attack: realistic horror”, two short stories dealing with the imprisonment of female bodies will put into dialogue: “Venha ver o pôr do sol”, by the brazilian Lygia Fagundes Telles, and “Hablar con viejas”, by the spanish Cristina Fernández Cubas. And the section “Counterattack: horror and the fantastic” will propose a reckoning through the analysis of the novel Cupim, by the spanish Layla Martínez, put into dialogue with the short story “O título é um grito”, by the brazilian Nikelen Witter. In both works, we seek to demonstrate how the fightback only occurs because both rationality and the patriarchal system are put in check by the possibilities of the fantastic – always considering the chill inherent in horror.