The resurgence of an interspecies: Effects of incarceration in El apando, from José Revueltas

Abstract

This article strongly questions the premise proposed by ceritan fraction of the critic that considers El apando (1969) from mexican writer José Revueltas, only as a “political novel” and a testimony of his own incarceration experience. From a perspective that uses notions of fenomenology, deconstruction and ideological critic, we will analyze how the circumstance of being incarcerated has, in this novel, consequences that are much more transcendental from a literary point of view, where the particular rhetorical use and the construction of a narrative map question the autobiographic discourse. By tearing apart the traditional view, it will be possible to notice the way the confinement space generates several functional issues for the narrative backdrop from El apando, which create instability of the identities when they are not as clear, given that “jailers” and “prisoners” are addressed with related terms, like “masters” and “slaves”, and specially, “men” and “animals”.