UNDEAD MENACE: VAMPIRISM AND ORIENTALISM IN "LA CORTINA DE BAMBÚ" BY DIEGO BARROS ORTIZ

• Published in: Chasqui 2017-05, Vol.46 (1), p.129-138
• Main Author: Hollingsworth, Philip C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 19th century; 20th century; Barros Ortiz, Diego; Chilean literature; Chinese languages; Crítica literaria; Cultural factors; Diaspora; Diáspora; Erotica; Eurocentrism; Eurocentrismo; Fear & phobias; Hegemony; Ideology; Immigrants; Immigration; Inmigración; Literary characters; Literary criticism; Literary influences; Literatura chilena; Men; Middle Ages; Narrative techniques; Narratives; Novela corta; Novella; Novellas; Novels; Orientalism; Orientalismo; Otherness; Otredad; Plot (Narrative); Prejudice; Prejuicio; Race; Racism; Racismo; Sex crimes; Short stories; Siglo XX; Stereotypes; Stoker, Bram (1847-1912); Superstición; Superstition; Vampires; Vampiros; Women; Xenofobia; Xenophobia
• ISSN: 0145-8973; 2327-4247

In this essay, I will examine the image of the Chinese man as vampiric entity in the novella La cortina de bambú (1949) by Chilean writer Diego Barros Ortiz (1908-1990). This narrative explores twentieth-century fears of the changing social climate of a modernizing South America. These suspicions stem from the Eurocentric worldview explored in the ideologies and literature regarding the Yellow Peril and through horror novels such as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), considered the exemplary vampire narrative of the late nineteenth century. I claim that the vampiric description of the Chinese male in La cortina de bambú reflects the anxieties related to the perceived threat of immigrants to Euro-centric criollo hegemony. The essay will begin with an overview of the Western description of the Other during the first half of the twentieth century and then I will explore the ways in which Barros Ortiz employs the image of the vampire to reinforce white male supremacy ideologies that pervade Western culture. La cortina de bambú serves as a warning against outside influences on the white patriarchal tradition including a stance that favors the domesticity and subjugation of the female as well as the eradication of non-European immigrants.