Género(s) y sadomasoquismo: la novela Los esclavos de Alberto Chimal

Abstract

The present article offers an interpretation of Alberto Chimal’s first novel, The Slaves, published by this Mexican author in 2009, a novel proposing an analysis of sadomasochistic sexual relations. In the center of the narration, we encounter two couples, both homosexual, acting out various sadomasochistic practices ‒ some of them of an extreme nature: On the one hand, two women, one of them already older (Marlene) and (supposedly) the director of pornographic movies, and the other, almost still a girl (Yuyis) live a relation of dominance and submission with the noteworthy complication that Marlene could even be the mother of her "slave girl". The second couple is formed by two men: Golo, a decadent millionaire, and his "slave" nicknamed "Mundo" ('World') who is frequently reduced to something like a dog or even an unanimated object. The whole novel consists of various sequences narrating what the two couples experience in their sex life until a final turning point is reached with the forced separation in both cases. Due to a narrative structure that makes as understand that we as readers depend completely on an unreliable narrator, even the most brutal atrocities tend to dissipate in the fog of probably fictitious games showing us the trompe-l'oeil of a monstrous storyline of serial sex crimes. With this peculiar narrative structure in mind, I emphasize the 'ludic' character of sadomasochistic 'plays' narrated all through the novel, trying to understand what 'sadomasochism' means as a sexual practice or identity and what consequences could be drawn from these practices with regard to the construction of different genders (in the case of this novel: masculine and feminine).

Keywords

• Alberto Chimal
• Los esclavos
• sadomasochism
• Contemporary Mexican Literature
• Gender Studies