Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2002

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Modern Foreign Languages

Major Professor

Oscar Rivera-Rodas

Abstract

This work deals with the formation of the Mexican identity which has been marked by the rise of the mestizo from the moment of the Spanish conquest. After explaining in the first chapter how the mestizo came to define the identity of a country as diverse as Mexico, I focus my analysis on four key essayists who wrote during the first half of the twentieth century. These essayists are Samuel Ramos, Octavio Paz, Emilio Uranga and Leopoldo Zea. I offer a different reading of their essays, emphasizing two aspects that critics have overlooked: the historical perspective that they use to define the Mexican being and the pragmatical side of their works. Through these two aspects of their essays I have come to the conclusion that the work of these writers has introduced self-criticism in Mexican thought. Comparing their works, I come up with the characteristics that they define as part of the Mexican character. Later on I apply these characteristics to three Mexican novels representative of the genre: El luto humano by Jose Revueltas, Los albafiiles by Vicente Lefiero and Arrancame la vida by .Angeles Mastretta. The purpose of this comparison is to show how these novelists share the essayists' ideas regarding Mexican character and how these ideas are perpetuated through literature.

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