Identidad y ambivalencia : una lectura de Palinuro de México desde el grotesco

Abstract

In this work, the author studies the novel Palinuro de México, by Fernando del Paso, from the perspective of the aesthetics of the grotesque. The analysis starts with a brief examination of two fundamental intertexts of the above mentioned novel: Virgil´s Eneide and Cyril Connolly´s The unquiet grave; some elements of the grotesque that constitute the basis of the novel: deformations, movement, mixture of domains, the cancellation of the category of thing, and the annihilation of historical order. Two characteristics of the grotesque are also emphasized in this work, as both are seen to underly Del Paso´s vision of the world: the loss of identity and its later reconstruction, and the ambivalent character of the novel torn between hope and desolation, myth and history, laughter and horror.