The Horror of Normalized Cannibalism : The Eerie and the Weird in Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender Is the Flesh

Key Points

• The aim is to investigate how horror arises from a reconfiguration of normalcy in Bazterrica’s work.
• Analyzed Agustina Bazterrica’s novel using Mark Fisher’s concepts of the eerie and weird.
• Examined the language that replaces humans with 'meat' and 'individuals'.
• Critically reviewed the concept of 'humanization' as a device that highlights cognitive dissonance.
• The normalization of violence is absorbed within administrative and consumer logics.
• Cognitive dissonance creates a gap between characters’ realities and readers’ perceptions of horror.
• The novel reveals that the boundaries of humanity are constructed through classification and acceptance.