Abnormality, Science, and Eugenic Poetics in La comemadre (2010) by Roque Larraquy

Romero Suárez D.A.; Lossio J. · Letras (Peru) (2026) · DOI: 10.30920/letras.97.145.13

Resumen

Body alterations, whether for medical or aesthetic purposes, are becoming progressively more common. Whether through surgical procedures, genetic engineering, medication, or diets, the body is no longer assumed or desired as an immutable, natural entity. While eugenic modification of bodies aimed to eliminate traits considered undesirable through state health policies, eugenics has also included the public exhibition of “abnormal” subjects. Along these lines, Roque Larraquy’s novel La comemadre (2010) establishes a genealogy between eugenics, modern medicine, and the exhibition of bodies for entertainment purposes. The article’s main thesis is that the cataloging of abnormal bodies constitutes a eugenic continuum that interwaves early 20th-century scientific practices and 21st-century contemporary art. Eugenics, therefore, is not only a passive implementation of previously existing abstract or scientific principles, but also involves an act of creation —a poetics— that is shaped by individual, technical, visual, and rhetorical decisions. Thus, eugenics represents a historical and aesthetic project that imagines, shapes, and hierarchizes abnormality.

Instituciones: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú