THE MONSTER THAT SUCKS OTHERS' ENERGY: FORMS OF BIOPOLITIC VAMPIRISM IN CONTEMPORARY PARAGUAYAN SHORT STORIES

At a time in which the number of fictional texts focusing on figures of monsters, ghosts, deformed beings and zombies is increasing and when the representation of deformity and deviation reflects a "political" purpose of vindicating forms of resistance to the global emergency through the monstrous, we propose a reading of three contemporary Paraguayan short stories that use the allegory of the vampire to denounce certain socioeconomic criticalities of the present day. In the three selected texts (by Liz Haedo, Jose Perez Reyes and Maria Pia Escobar), the condition of the blood-sucking vampire will be analyzed as a metaphorical image: the action of sucking blood occurs only symbolically and has a moral dimension as an expression of the ability to empty the Other and/or make him/her addicted to certain forms of hyper-consumption of global capitalism.