The aestheticization of violence in “La pesada valija de Benavides” (Samanta Schweblin, 2002) and La valija de Benavidez (Laura Casabé, 2015)

Abstract

In this paper I propose a reading of Samanta Schweblin's short story, "La pesada valija de Benavides", and its transposition to film, in La valija de Benavidez (Laura Casabé, 2015). "La pesada valija de Benavides" is part of the short story collection El núcleo del disturbio, the Argentine writer's opera prima with which she won the National Fund for the Arts Award in 2001. The film La valija de Benavidez is a free adaptation, written and directed by Laura Casabé, whose debut in cinema was with the fantastic feature film El hada buena: una fábula peronista (2010).  I am interested in focusing on the treatment of fear, madness and the world of art as they are configured in both texts, and, in this sense, to reflect on the ways in which terror is embodied in the plot through the aestheticization of violence.