The representation of queer practices and the re-signifying of family notions in two recent Argentinian novels: “I Am Whoever You Want to Call Me” and “The Evil Ones”.

Abstract

The purpose of the current work is to study one aspect of the representation of persons with dissenting gender, which has become more visible and less cartoonish in Latin American literary production since the year 1994. We are referring to the presence of trans characters (i.e., transvestite, transsexual and transgender) that begin to acquire new identities with the help of a context comprised by people without blood ties with the main character. To illustrate this, we will discuss two recent Argentinian novels, Soy lo que quieras llamarme (“I Am Whoever You Want to Call me”) by Gabriel Dalla Torre (Neuquén, 1977), published in 2012 by El Ateneo in Buenos Aires ( Letra Sur International Award for Novel), and Las malas (“The Evil Ones”) by Camila Sosa Villada (La Falda, Córdoba, 1982) published by Tusquets in 2019 (Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Award in 2020).

Keywords

• Contemporary Argentinian literature
• family
• gender oppression
• queer
• trans body
• identity