Silence and perversion: literary analysis in three Latin American short stories

Abstract

This article analyzes how silence operates as an aesthetic and ethical device in three contemporary Latin American short stories written by women: “Los que persiguen tormentas” by Betina González, “Un hombre sin suerte” by Samanta Schweblin, and “Nadie nunca se acostumbra” by Alejandra Costamagna. Drawing on a qualitative, hermeneutic, and comparative approach, the study examines child focalization, narrative ellipsis, the configuration of family bonds, and the emergence of perversity within everyday spaces. It argues that, in these stories, the unsettling does not arise from overtly supernatural events, but from domestic scenes in which the girl protagonists partially perceive what adults conceal, displace, or violate. The findings reveal three modulations of silence: in González, as guilt-ridden contemplation in the face of familial instrumentalization; in Schweblin, as the ambiguous appropriation of a threatening experience; and in Costamagna, as the suspension of an unbearable truth. The article concludes that silence does not function as a mere absence of language, but as a form of meaning-making that intensifies the uncanny, exposes the fragility of adult protection, and turns the child’s gaze into a space of ethical and narrative ambiguity.