UC Riverside

This study proposes an analysis of land, as a literary and historical notion, in a selection of mid-twentieth century Mexican novels: Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo (1955), El gallo de oro (1980), Agustín Yáñez’s La tierra pródiga (1960), and Juan José Arreola’s La feria (1963). And proposes these novels as representational paradigms of the relationship between land and landownership in Mexico from the Revolution into the 1980’s. In addition to “land narrative” this research offers an array of historical contributions to the analysis of traditional and cultural representation of land in Mexico’s literary history. This investigation also proposes a re-interpretative reading of historical conceptions of land and property in midcentury rural Mexico. Land narrative in this context, offers a new perspective of Mexico’s literary land history after its Revolution. This novel approach to the topic of land narrative proposes both new terms and approaches for understanding the intelligibility of midcentury literature and its conceptualization.