UCLA

This dissertation examines the work of Ignacio Padilla (Mexico City, 1968) from two complementary perspectives. First, by going against the dominant critical view of Padilla's works as apolitical and uninterested in national or regional problems, I demonstrate how Padilla's fictions serve as a space of continuity for key literary and intellectual traditions in Mexico and Latin America. By setting Padilla's work in the context of his Latin American precursors as well as his contemporaries, I show how his oeuvre not only reevaluates topics such as modernity, colonialism, cultural diversity, and cosmopolitanism, but also how it relies on literary traditions such as the narrative of the Mexican Revolution, the Novel of the Dictator, essays on national identity, Magical-Realism and others. Secondly, I explore Padilla's conception of the role of the writer and of literature in contemporary societies, concentrating on his idea that a great work of literature generates profound reflection only when it historically, socially and politically implicates its reader. I follow this theory to show Padilla's socio-political commitment, and particularly, his concern with different aspects of Mexican history and culture from the 1980's to the present. In Padilla's works, there is a constant interest in examining the changes that occurred in Mexico due to the neoliberal reforms of the 1980's, especially regarding the relationship between intellectuals and the Mexican State, the artistic engagement with the social events that happened in Mexico City after the catastrophic earthquake of 1985, and the urgency to redefine the concept of nation and citizenship in Mexico after the democratic transition of the year 2000. The study of the works of Ignacio Padilla in light of his precursors and contemporaries illuminates an era of Mexican history, culture and literature from 1985 to 2015.