The motif of the nahual in Guatemalan prose fiction

Date Issued
June 1, 1980
Author(s)
Johnson, Esther Musson
Advisor(s)
Ernest Lewald
Additional Advisor(s)
Thomas B. Irving
Permanent URI
Abstract
The nahual is an important motif in Guatemalan literature, yet many critics have viewed its appearance in novels and stories as largely adventitious. In order to understand the nahual in literature, it is necessary to be aware of the many manifestations of the nahual and its function in the cultures where it exists. Thus the study begins with a review of the ethnographic literature on nahualism and continues with a discussion of the nahual from a structuralist point of view.

The purpose of this study has been to examine the mythic and artistic function of the nahual in the Guatemalan works in which it appears. The primary focus has been concentrated on four works by Miguel Angel Asturias: El señor Presidente, Hombres de maíz, Soluna and Mulata de tal. Through the sequence of these works the nahual undergoes a qualitative change which reflects Asturias' changing view of the relationship between man and nature. A structuralist approach, partially based on the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss and combined with the figure of the nahual, reveals the underlying unity of Hombres de maíz. The use of the nahual as a motif by other Guatemalan writers in their works is also discussed: Monteforte Toledo's Entre la piedra y la cruz and Donde acaban los caminos, Flavio Herrera's El tigre, Carlos Samayoa Chinchilla's "El nahual" and "El brujo de Chitzajay," Francisco Méndez' Cuentos and Luis Alfredo Arango's Cuentos de Oral Siguán.

Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Spanish
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