The intimidated bodies: The somatic consequences of state terrorism in Mario Vargas Llosa’s novel The Feast of the Goat

Abstract

This paper argues that Mario Vargas Llosa’s novel The Feast of the Goat (2000) uses the images of the bodies of three of its characters (Urania Cabral, Trujillo and Agustín Cabral) to represent the mechanisms of state terrorism at the time of Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. It is a traumatizing system, which leaves somatic marks in all the actors involved. We analyze the manners in which the Peruvian author uses the images of protagonists’ organic processes to sketch the psychical, emotional and ideological processes and states, linked to or generated by the policies of intimidation.

Keywords

• state terrorism
• intimidation
• bodies
• organic liquids
• Vargas Llosa