“Bésame otra vez”: The Use of Obscenity to Denounce Violence in Pedro Lemebel’s Incontables (1986)

Abstract

‘“Bésame otra vez’: The Use of Obscenity to Denounce Violence in Pedro Lemebel’s Incontables” examines the role of obscenity in Pedro Lemebel’s Incontables (1986). Through my analysis of four short stories – “Ella entró por la ventana del baño”, “Bramadero”, “Monseñor” and “Bésame otra vez forastero” – I define obscenity in two related and mutually imbricated yet contradictory ways. First, I consider the radical potential of obscenity as excess. Obscenity, in this case, means unsatiated illicit sexual desire and excess of dirt/filth/lo sucio. I am particularly interested in Lemebel’s neobarroso writing style to connote excess and “lo sucio” in what I define as the obscene. In many ways, what makes sexuality and lo sucio obscene is their excess and how their extremity elicits affective responses of excitement or repulsion in the reader. At the same time, it is the excess of power, violence, and state neglect that framed Pinochet’s dictatorship. In the stories, we also see how the extremity of state violence permeates and transforms into quotidian acts of gendered violence throughout Chile. This second form of obscene represents the absurdity of the regime’s power in its enactment of violence, pain, and ultimately, death.

Keywords:

• obscenity
• excess
• violence
• Pedro Lemebel
• Incontables
• Chilean dictatorship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

María Célleri

María Célleri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender, Women’s + Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Her current book project, tentatively titled Uncovering the Virgen del Panecillo: Quito’s Postcolonial Urban Transformation & Decolonial Future Imaginaries, is a postcolonial cultural analysis of the Monument to the Virgen del Panecillo constructed in 1976 in Quito, Ecuador. Based on extensive archival research and cultural analysis of art, film, and literature, the book reveals how public monuments come to represent and often reproduce neocolonial national imaginations that are then mapped onto national territories, while also serving as contested sites of possibility for decolonial future imaginaries. Her research interests include Latin American and Caribbean Studies (Andean Studies), decolonial feminisms, reproductive justice, urban studies, queer/cuir/jotería studies, and cultural studies.