The fantasy of invulnerability in Rexina Vega's short story “A catedrática”

My objective in this work is to reflect on the resources that Galician author Rexina Vega employs in her story “A catedrática” to question the naturalised social order. Among others, the updating of a classic motif of the fantastic—metamorphosis— and the use of humour as a critical tool stand out. In the anthology Las mil caras del monstruo, Ana Casas defines this fantastic entity as “an impossible being that creates unease in the reader, not only because of its physical appearance but, above all, because of its psychological aspect” (2018). Based on this idea, I will focus in these pages on how monstrosity is combined with the use of humour to highlight the ideology that permeates daily life, in this specific case, in the academic world. To this end, I will combine theoretical approaches from non mimetic fiction studies, psychology, philosophy and a gender perspective. The fantastic monster, traditionally considered an entity linked to deviation from the norm in Vega's short story becomes a symbolic representation of normativity.