‘Yo no estoy completo de la mente’: Ethics and Madness in Horacio Castellanos Moya's Insensatez

Abstract

The present study examines Horacio Castellanos Moya's Insensatez in relation to recent criticism that has read the novel either as meta-testimonio or post-testimonio. This article challenges these positions through two strategies. First, the analysis relies on a theorem of ethics forwarded by Alain Badiou and Michel Foucault's notions of institutionality vis-à-vis biopolitics to establish that the narrative task at hand is a critique of structures of power extant in postwar Guatemala. This, in turn, permits a dialogue with Walter Mignolo's decolonial stance in regard to human rights, fueling a reading that suggests that the text is critical of measures of giving voice and remembering that conform to Western notions of rights and ethics.