Pedro Páramo

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Pedro Páramo is a short novel written by Juan Rulfo, originally published in 1955. In just the 23 FCE editions and reprintings, it had sold by November 1997 1,143,000 copies. Other editions in Mexico, Spain, and other nations have sold countless more copies. It is Rulfo's second book, after the short story collection El Llano en llamas (translated into English as The Burning Plain: and other Stories) . It has had a major influence in the development of magical realism and it is told in a mixture of first and third person. Gabriel García Márquez said he hadn't felt like that since reading The Metamorphosis while Jorge Luis Borges called it one of the best novels in literature. ^[1]

The novel has been twice translated into English. The more recent (and often considered the more accurate and complete)^{[citation needed]} translation is by Margaret Sayers Peden. It has also received numerous film adaptations. The latest, and most prominent, adaptation will star Gael García Bernal and will be directed by Mateo Gil.^[2]

Synopsis

The novel begins with the first person account of Juan Preciado, who promises his mother at her deathbed that he will return to Comala to reclaim their land. Preciado, whose name we are unaware of until later in the novel, suggests that he had no intention of keeping this promise until he was overtaken by subjective visions of Comala and of Pedro Páramo. At that point his journey to Comala begins. His narration is fragmented and interspersed with fragments of dialogue from his recently deceased mother, Dolores Preciado. It is interrupted by another first person narration, which is apparently that of Pedro Páramo. Preciado encounters one person after another in Comala, each of whom he perceives to be dead. Midway through the novel, Preciado's narration stops and is overtaken entirely by an omniscient narration and the interior monologue of Pedro Páramo. Most of the characters in Preciado's narration (Dolores Preciado, Eduviges Dyada, Abundio Martínez,Susana San Juan, and Damiana Cisneros) are presented in the omniscient narration, but much less subjectively. The two major competing narrative voices present alternative visions of Comala, one living and one full of the spirits of the dead. It is the omniscient narration that provides details of the life of Pedro Páramo, from his early youthful idealization of Susana San Juan, his rise to power upon his coming of age, his tyrannical abuses and womanizing, and finally, his death. Although the title character is cruel, he is also depicted as a loving father to the illegitimate son he raises (Miguel Páramo), and as a cunning ruler who outwits mercenaries who without his intervention would have ravaged Comala.

Interpretation

Pedro Páramo is primarily considered by critics as either a work of magical realism or a precursor to later works of magical realism. This may be deceptive, however, as magical realism is a term coined to note the juxtaposition of the surreal to the mundane, with each bearing traits of the other. It is a means of adding surreal or supernatural qualities to a written work while maintaining a necessary suspension of disbelief. Pedro Páramo is distinct to other works classified in this manner, because the primary narrator states clearly in the second paragraph of the novel that his mind has filled with dreams and that he has given flight to illusion, and that a world has formed in his mind around the hopes of man named Pedro Páramo. Likewise, several sections into this narration, Juan Preciado states that his head has filled with noises and voices. He is unable to distinguish living persons from apparitions. Certain qualities of the novel, including the narrative fragmentation, the physical fragmentation of characters, and the auditory and visual hallucinations described by the primary narrator, suggest that this novel's journey and visions may be more readily associable with the sort of breakdown of the senses present in schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like conditions than with magical realism^[3][4].

References

1. ^ Juan Rulfo - Página Oficial - Cronología
2. ^ Pedro Páramo (2009)
3. ^ Corwin, Jay. "Pedro Paramo". The Literary Encyclopedia. 1 May 2009. accessed 17 October 2009.
4. ^ Corwin, Jay. "Fragmentation and Schizophrenia in Pedro Paramo." Theory in Action, vol. 2, num. 3. July, 2009.

• The Ghosts of Comala: Haunted Meaning in Pedro Páramo. University of Texas press introduction to Pedro Páramo.
• Zepeda, Jorge. La recepción inicial de Pedro Páramo (1955–1963). México: Fundación Juan Rulfo / Editorial RM, 2005. 378 pp. ISBN 968-5208-44-1.

External links

• Pedro Páramo (1967) at the Internet Movie Database
• Pedro Páramo (1978) at the Internet Movie Database
• Pedro Páramo (1981) at the Internet Movie Database
• Pedro Páramo (2009) at the Internet Movie Database
• Pedro Páramo (2004) the theatre by Theatre Formation Paribartak of India