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Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo

Why Read Rulfo?

The essence of the rural Mexican voice

One of Mexico’s most widely read authors

Rulfo’s fiction : influences

The Mexican Revolution (1910) and Cristero rebellion (1926—29)The Mexican Revolution (1910) and Cristero rebellion (1926—29)

Local political leader Local political leader

Personal identity and

Responsibility

The communal, collective responsibility and therefore

guilt of an entire community/society

Corrupt, corroding political power of

cacique

Catholic Church, which is often impotent (Cristero Rebellion) and therefore reinforces corruption

Turbulent history of revolution and rebellion in

Mexico

Motifs: heat, decay, rain, night, darkness, silence, violence, sexuality, animals,

Polyphonic point of view and the postmodern fractured narrative structure

Allusion: historical, religious, literary

Tone, mood, diction, characterization

Conventions related to Conventions related to Contextual/Cultural contextContextual/Cultural context

Magical realism

Dia del muetre culture

References to time, timelessness and its relationship to memory

Features of modernism(as a literary movement)

1) Departure from regional or indigenist themes

2)Highly experimental narrative structures

3)Intertextual allusions4)“lo real maravilloso” : magical realism

1) Subjectivity/ impressionistic writing (stream of consciousness is an example)

2) Departure from 3rd omniscient narrators3) Blurring of genre distinctions4) Emphasis of fragmented forms/ discontinuous

narratives5) Tendency towards self-consciousness

(METAFICTION)6) Rejection of formal aesthetics7) Rejection of distinction between “High” (highly

educated, formal, classical) and “low” (pop culture or regional, local, indigenous) culture

1) Subjectivity/ impressionistic writing (stream of consciousness is an example)

2) Departure from 3rd omniscient narrators3) Blurring of genre distinctions4) Emphasis of fragmented forms/ discontinuous

narratives5) Tendency towards self-consciousness

(METAFICTION)6) Rejection of formal aesthetics7) Rejection of distinction between “High” (highly

educated, formal, classical) and “low” (pop culture or regional, local, indigenous) culture

Rulfo asks readers to evaluate

a)Powerb)Faithc)Loyaltyd)Relationshipse)Communal identity vs personal identityf)Guilt: personal vs communalg)Free willh)Love

Indigenous polytheistic

Aztec beliefs

Catholic Conquistatores

Catholic cultural context fused with indigenous and native folklore

Rulfo’s photography