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Risa y Muerte: The Literary Calavera, and the Mexican Intimacy with Death Item Info

Abstract: When I speak of my short time in Mexico—up until the age of 5—it seems to come across in bits and fragments closer to dreams, ghost stories and distorted memories than anything mirroring reality. Yet, when retelling such chimeric stories to my hispanic relatives, such recollections are treated as facts of life. It is precisely this counter-intuitive merging between life and death, within Mexican culture, that this paper aims to capture. In order to explore this intimacy and attitude towards death, this paper uses the epitaph-like art form of the literary calaverita as a microcosm of Mexican identity. The literary calavera deliberately blends together: death, humor, spectacle, myth, mysticism, and the absurd in a surrealist scenario where death comes for our dear loved ones. In using the literary calavera as stand in for Mexican culture, this paper than conducts a comparative literature analysis through the usage of Chicano and Mexican literature such as Ana Castillo’s So Far From God, John Philip Santos, Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation, Octavio Paz’s The Labyrinth of Solitude, and Max Aub’s Mucha Muerte. Carlos Reygadas’ debut film Japón also plays a vital role developing this understanding. Lastly, give the notion that such an exploration of Mexican identity focuses heavily on a communal form of storytelling and myth, I add my own literary calaveras, and short vignettes of my own experience where counter-intuitive instances between life and death take place.

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Title:
Risa y Muerte: The Literary Calavera, and the Mexican Intimacy with Death
Creator:
Diaz, Juan
Date Created:
2023-12
Description:
Abstract: When I speak of my short time in Mexico—up until the age of 5—it seems to come across in bits and fragments closer to dreams, ghost stories and distorted memories than anything mirroring reality. Yet, when retelling such chimeric stories to my hispanic relatives, such recollections are treated as facts of life. It is precisely this counter-intuitive merging between life and death, within Mexican culture, that this paper aims to capture. In order to explore this intimacy and attitude towards death, this paper uses the epitaph-like art form of the literary calaverita as a microcosm of Mexican identity. The literary calavera deliberately blends together: death, humor, spectacle, myth, mysticism, and the absurd in a surrealist scenario where death comes for our dear loved ones. In using the literary calavera as stand in for Mexican culture, this paper than conducts a comparative literature analysis through the usage of Chicano and Mexican literature such as Ana Castillo’s So Far From God, John Philip Santos, Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation, Octavio Paz’s The Labyrinth of Solitude, and Max Aub’s Mucha Muerte. Carlos Reygadas’ debut film Japón also plays a vital role developing this understanding. Lastly, give the notion that such an exploration of Mexican identity focuses heavily on a communal form of storytelling and myth, I add my own literary calaveras, and short vignettes of my own experience where counter-intuitive instances between life and death take place.
Subjects:
humor death calavera Mexico Mexican-American Latin America Max Aub Mucha Muerte John Phillip Santos Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation Ana Castillo So Far From God
Methods:
textual analysis creative writing
Location:
Mexico City
Latitude:
19.43340174
Longitude:
-99.13058222
Language:
English; Spanish
Source
Preferred Citation:
"Risa y Muerte: The Literary Calavera, and the Mexican Intimacy with Death", English Honors Thesis Repository, Nevada State University
Reference Link:
https://nevada-state-english.github.io/nsu-english-thesis/items/ht006.html
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