From Frantastic to Dystopian: the Transgressive Efect of Mario Bellatin’s Salón de Belleza

TLDR: In this article, the authors demonstrate how the fantastic and the dystopian can operate together in order to take full advantage of their inherently transgressive qualities, by analyzing Mario Bellatin's Salon de belleza and showing that the fantastic acts intratextually by producing syntactic and discursive ruptures, whereas the dystopian provokes an extratextual transgression, by projecting Bellatin’s concerns about the exclusion of certain minority communities.

Abstract: The present article aims to demonstrate how the fantastic and the dystopian can operate together in order to take full advantage of their inherently transgressive qualities. For this purpose, Mario Bellatin’s Salon de belleza will be analyzed. The fantastic acts intratextually, by producing syntactic and discursive ruptures, whereas the dystopian provokes an extratextual transgression, by projecting Bellatin’s concerns about the exclusion of certain minority communities. Despite their differences, both the fantastic and the dystopian are rooted in reality: the fantastic, in its reliance on what the reader considers possible; the dystopian, in its ability to reveal hidden truths. In this way, the fantastic and the dystopian become a powerful tool in deconstructing – or at least questioning – the reader’s world view.