SOURCE: Pollard, Scott. “Gender, Aesthetics and the Struggle for Power in José Donoso's El obsceno pájaro de la noche.” Latin American Literary Review 23, no. 45 (January-June 1995): 18-42.

In the following essay, Pollard demonstrates how Donoso posits and then subverts the notion of patriarchy as the basis for Chilean society.

Majority implies a state of domination, not the reverse. It is not a question of knowing whether there are more mosquitos or flies than men, but of knowing how “man” constituted a standard in the universe in relation to which men necessarily (analytically) form a majority. The majority in a government presupposes the right to vote, and not only is established among those who possess that right but is exercised over those who do not, however great their number; similarly, the majority in the universe assumes as pregiven the right and power of man … man is the molar entity...