Interrogating Monstrosity and the Grotesque in Griselda Gambaro’s Nada que ver and Nada que ver con otra historia

Abstract

This article examines the use of the grotesque in Griselda Gambaro’s play, Nada que ver, and her novel Nada que ver con otra historia. The discussion first establishes key intertextual connections between Gambaro’s work and other literary and theatrical antecedents, to then focus in detail on Gambaro’s own use of the grotesque. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which the grotesque acts as a differentiating trope built around discrepancies between the dictatorial state and the monstrous. This contrast is epitomised at one extreme through the allusions to Onganía’s regime in Argentina and, at the other, through a man-made creature that has a leading role in both texts. This article argues that, in Gambaro’s work, the grotesque constitutes a new value of embodiment, subverting and generating new practices of visibility which allow for participatory spectatorship and political readings.