Racismo y violencia de género en “Biografía” de María Fernanda Ampuero: Una lectura desde el robo del goce de la Cosa-Nación

The short story “Biografía” by the Ecuadorian writer María Fernanda Ampuero, portrays the experience of illegal migration from the point of view of a woman. She is triply vulnerable due to her status as a woman, a migrant and being undocumented, the protagonist must face racism and gender violence daily. This article reviews some of Slavoj Žižek's concepts such as Thing and enjoyment (jouissance) to explain racism as the improbable but no less frightening threat to the national-Thing. Although Ampuero's text is a fiction, it offers a unique opportunity to understand racism as a kind of castration complex where the “other” becomes a permanent threat to enjoyment.