Femi(ni)cide through a Decolonial Lens: Literary Interventions and the Relational Turn

Feminist scholars of coloniality and intersectionality are presently proposing and enacting a relational turn in the theorization of femi(ni)cide. These thinkers make efforts to disengage from mono-categorial framings that search for explanations for extreme violence against women within the realm of gender. Instead, they draw on intersectionality and decolonial feminism to reconceptualize femi(ni)cide as a site where multiple forms of violence are bound together and co-constitute one another through relational processes. The main concern of this article is with the challenges posed by the transition to a paradigm of relationality in feminist theorizing about femi(ni)cide. With a view to identifying resources for navigating those challenges, I turn to literature, arguing that literary forms have the capacity to mediate relationality, rendering fathomable what otherwise risks becoming a diffuse, paralyzing idea. To advance this argument, I focus on two recent literary examples from Latin America’s Southern Cone: Selva Almada’s Not a River and Daniela Catrileo’s Piñen. My analysis explores how these fictional works use literary metaphor to make the abstract connections between multiple systems and histories of violence tangible through concrete imagery. The article concludes by suggesting that literature can be a generative resource for transforming the paradigm that we use to understand gender violence and, potentially, the prevention strategies and resistance practices that arise from that paradigm.