Power as a narrative construct in The Feast of the Goat.

Abstract

The article examines how Mario Vargas Llosa’s La fiesta del Chivo constructs a narrative representation of power by exploring the mechanisms of domination embedded in Rafael Leónidas Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. The study’s central premise is that dictatorship, as a political, social, and symbolic phenomenon, inevitably manifests in literature, where narrative becomes a device that exposes how power is exercised, internalized, and resisted. Methodologically, the article employs a hermeneutic reading grounded in Michel Foucault’s concepts of power, freedom, and resistance, analyzing how the novel’s structure, character perspectives, and temporal shifts illuminate the rationalized violence of the regime and the psychological impact it produces. The objective is to demonstrate that Vargas Llosa’s reconstruction of the Trujillato not only depicts the dictator’s absolute control through fear, surveillance, and mythic authority, but also reveals the process by which individuals move from passive complicity to conscious resistance, culminating in the collective decision to assassinate the tyrant. The scope of the analysis highlights literature’s capacity to interpret and reveal social phenomena, showing that power operates through normalized practices that permeate everyday life, shaping behavior and limiting autonomy until the subject reclaims agency. Ultimately, the article argues that the novel functions as an exploration of the human struggle for dignity and freedom, illustrating how narrative can articulate both the oppressive weight of power and the emancipatory force of resistance.