The labyrinth of solitude

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The labyrinth of loneliness ( Spanish : El laberinto de la soledad ) is a central essay in the literary and philosophical work of the Mexican Nobel Prize for Literature, Octavio Paz . The essay was published for the first time in 1950, revised and expanded by a chapter in 1959, and finally supplemented in 1970 by the (self-) critical part Postdata , which is shaped by the Tlatelolco massacre and the politics of the PRI . Octavio Paz wrote the text between 1945 and 1951 during his time in Paris. His two-year stay in the USA gave the impetus to deal with Mexican culture. Accordingly, the central motif of the volume is the “mexicanidad”, which had gained in importance in the course of the late Porfiriat and the Mexican Revolution . Until then, this discussion was dominated by Samuel Ramos, Leopoldo Zea , Alfonso Reyes and other members of the Ateneo de la Juventud , who were oriented towards the European tradition of ethnic psychology . Paz takes up important elements of the discussion, but distances himself explicitly from this tradition and turns to French moralism in his attempt to explain the essence of the Mexican . The question of national identity connects the text with other national psychological essays, as they were written many times in Latin America in the 19th and 20th centuries. a. by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento , Alejo Carpentier and Alfonso Reyes .

Similar to the binary structure of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's great essay Facundo. Civilización y Barbarie (1845), the four essays of the first part describe typical characteristics of the Mexican character, while the second part deals with key episodes of Mexican history such as the Spanish conquest, independence and the revolution. Although El laberinto de la soledad is usually assigned to the genre of the national psychological essay, the narrator distances himself from it on the first page by referring to the “naturaleza casi siempre ilusoria de los ensayos de psicología nacional”. This shows Paz's reception of surrealism, which strives for oxymoral figures of thought and contradictions.

With around two hundred printed pages, El laberinto de la soledad is significantly longer than other examples of the genre. The eight essays and the appendix combine a repertoire of recurring motifs (masks, mirror images, odyssey) and themes (identity, loneliness, death). Paz illustrates the peculiarities of the Mexican national character with examples that he takes from Mexican popular culture (swear words, sexist puns, folk songs) as well as high culture (poetry, philosophy). The text rejects a hierarchy of E- and U-culture, because examples from both areas have an illustrative effect and thus stand side by side on an equal footing. A central motif of the essay is the dialectical relationship between the individual and the community, which can also be found in the narrative perspective: Paz repeatedly switches between the perspective of the subjective, essayistic self, which is represented by formulas such as “recuerdo que ...” (“I remember me that ... ”), and a collectivizing speaking in the first person plural. This way of speaking suggests community and at the same time creates it performatively. This communion, however, is a fleeting, temporary state that Mexicans seek especially at popular festivals. The various anesthetic practices (alcohol, sex, drugs) cannot hide the fact that humans are born alone and die alone. The confrontation with death, the “gran boca vacía”, happens on the surface of the Mexican consciousness. Paz gives particular importance to folk festivals such as the Día de los Muertos , which is celebrated every year on November 2nd. Pre-Christian customs and mythical conceptions of time allow a different communal experience during such festivals. The motif of the mask takes on an important function in this context. It makes it possible to overcome loneliness, at least temporarily. The essay draws its political dimension from the historical roots of the analysis. For Paz, a direct path leads from the traumatic primal scene, the conquest of the Aztec Empire by the Spanish colonialists, to the presence of Mexican immigrants in major American cities.

Reception: While Paz's essay volumes as well as his poetry were quickly translated into all major European languages, he remained a controversial author in his country even after being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, who was equally popular with the political left for his early criticism of Stalinism and politically conservative for his portrayal of Sor Juana de la Cruz as a poet and woman has been criticized. Paz 'essays were not only widely read in Latin America, but were also productively received in North American essay writing, for example by Eliot Weinberger .

literature

  • Octavio Paz: El laberinto de la soledad . Cátedra, Madrid 2004.
  • Octavio Paz: The Labyrinth of Solitude . Walter, Olten / Freiburg i. B. 1970.
  • Samuel Ramos: El perfil del hombre y la cultura en México . Planeta, Mexico 2003.
  • Enrico Mario Santí: Introducción . In: Octavio Paz: El laberinto de la soledad . Cátedra, Madrid 2004, pp. 11-137.