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The Fiction of Juan Rulfo: Irony, Revolution and Postcolonialism
Author(s): Amit Thakkar (Author)
- Publisher: Tamesis Books
- Publication Date: 15 April 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 190 pages
- ISBN-10: 1855662388
- ISBN-13: 9781855662384
Book Description
This is the first extended, English-language study to focus exclusively on the fiction of Juan Rulfo in over twenty years, analyzing a selection of short stories from Rulfo’s collection and also two of the main characters of hismasterpiece, Pedro Páramo. This is the first extended, English-language study to focus exclusively on the fiction of Juan Rulfo in over twenty years. It contains innovative analyses of a selection of short stories from Rulfo’s collection, El llano en llamas (1953). It also examines in great depth two of the main characters of Pedro Páramo (1955), Rulfo’s masterpiece and only novel. The book shows how Rulfo’s works can be read as exercises in irony directed againstthe rhetoric of post-Revolutionary Mexican governments. It also demonstrates the relevance of certain legacies of colony in Rulfo’s use of irony. Successive Mexican governments promoted a vision of post-Revolutionary society founded on specific notions of ethnicity, family, nation, education, religion and rural politics. The author combines examination of the speeches, images and newspaper articles which disseminated this vision with incisive literary analyses of Rulfo’s work. These analyses are informed both by his original theory of irony, based on “internal” and “external” referents, and by existing postcolonial theories, particularly those of Homi K. Bhabha. Amit Thakkar is a Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at Lancaster University.
Editorial Reviews
Review
The reader is captivated by Thakkar’s exercise of close reading and his penetrating analysis of Rulfo’s work against the discourse of the post-Revolutionary state in speeches, newspaper articles, essays and murals. Read against this background, Rulfo’s words acquire an additional weight … Thakkar’s remarkable insight and scholarship render this book essential reading for anyone interested in deepening their understanding of Rulfo’s works. ― MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW
This book is a very welcome addition to the existing body of criticism on Rulfo and an important reminder that ‘literary, symbolic, universal’ and ‘non-literary, regional, context specific’ readings are not mutually exclusive. ―
BULLETIN OF SPANISH STUDIES
