The double movement of fantasy and science-fiction in La dimensión desconocida by Nona Fernández

Abstract

In her novel La dimensión desconocida (2016) Nona Fernández constantly frames a series of violent episodes pertaining to the Chilean dictatorship with fantastic and science-fiction references. The latter achieves two contradictory movements: the first involvers a tangential and ironic approach to barbarism and violence, where the marvelous, the horrendous and the inexplicable serve a dialogic and metonymic purpose with regards to trauma due to the dictatorship (Avelar 2000; Richard 2001). In contrast, the second movement subverts our rational perception with regards to the real, allowing the concept of horror to arise in that context (Alazraki 2010). In the end both movements create a tension between writing and memory while at the same time destabilizating our concept of the “real”.