Obese Terrorist Bodies as Biopolitical Resistance in Toole and Acosta’s Narratives

Abstract

This article explores the nuanced representations of obesity and the expressions of biopolitical violence in John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces and Oscar “Zeta” Acosta’s Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo. The "Obese Terrorist Body" is suggested as an important analytical tool to explore complex interplays of identity, normativity, and acts of resistance. A comparison of the two authors demonstrates how the casting of drunk and frumpy characters is used to subvert hegemonic ideologies in a world that ostracizes any deviational behavior as nonconformist as well as to demonstrate the systems of oppression that business is based upon. It further shows how the protagonists' experiences are celebrated in conjunction with biopolitical control and reflects on the conflicts between individual resistance and social member of the community norms. Through locating the obese body as simultaneously a site of oppression and a possible site of resistance, the narratives reveal the contestation and redefinition of dominant discourses. As a result, significant perspectives on body politics and identity in the context of bio-politics in contemporary American literature is offered in this study. In the end, this essay serves to further enlighten the cultural and political ramifications of the representation of obesity, drawing attention to the need to re‐examine the role of such representations in the shaping of body image, as well as society.