Fatal Hieroglyph: Mexico for Writers of Exile Malcolm Lowry and William Burroughs
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Data de Publicação: | 2017 |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Revista Scripta |
Texto Completo: | http://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/scripta/article/view/P.2358-3428.2017v21n42p217 |
Resumo: | This essay explores the representation of Mexico in the work of British modernist writer of exile Malcolm Lowry and of U.S. Anglo-American post-war, postmodern writer of exile William Burroughs. Lowry’s Under the Volcano (1947) and Burroughs’s trilogy The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket that Exploded (1962), and The Nova Express (1964) represent Mexico as a land of fatal hieroglyphs, as itself a fatal hieroglyph. Theoretically, a hieroglyph, as a condensation of space and time, is always already fatal — “an anticipation of the end in the beginning” [Jean Baudrillard]. The fatal sign constitutes an attempted exorcism of conventional reality governed by the status quo. For Lowry and Burroughs, Mexico as place and text is the locus of the exorcism of demons, personal and cultural. In turning Mexico into a fatal hieroglyph of doom, both modernist and postmodernist writers draw on a long tradition of stereotyping primitivizations of Mexico. However, in the cases of Lowry and Burroughs, these stereotypical primitivizations also function as alternative modes of knowledge, symbol-making, and anti-narration, deliberate plumbings of the non-linear, irrational, and trans-temporal to deliver a backhanded blow against the European and Gringo colonizer / conqueror in Lowry’s case and the malaise of Anglo-American military-industrial capitalism in Burroughs’s. |
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Fatal Hieroglyph: Mexico for Writers of Exile Malcolm Lowry and William BurroughsMalcolm LowryWilliam S. BurroughsMexicoHieroglyphExileLiterature of exileModernismPostmodernism.This essay explores the representation of Mexico in the work of British modernist writer of exile Malcolm Lowry and of U.S. Anglo-American post-war, postmodern writer of exile William Burroughs. Lowry’s Under the Volcano (1947) and Burroughs’s trilogy The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket that Exploded (1962), and The Nova Express (1964) represent Mexico as a land of fatal hieroglyphs, as itself a fatal hieroglyph. Theoretically, a hieroglyph, as a condensation of space and time, is always already fatal — “an anticipation of the end in the beginning” [Jean Baudrillard]. The fatal sign constitutes an attempted exorcism of conventional reality governed by the status quo. For Lowry and Burroughs, Mexico as place and text is the locus of the exorcism of demons, personal and cultural. In turning Mexico into a fatal hieroglyph of doom, both modernist and postmodernist writers draw on a long tradition of stereotyping primitivizations of Mexico. However, in the cases of Lowry and Burroughs, these stereotypical primitivizations also function as alternative modes of knowledge, symbol-making, and anti-narration, deliberate plumbings of the non-linear, irrational, and trans-temporal to deliver a backhanded blow against the European and Gringo colonizer / conqueror in Lowry’s case and the malaise of Anglo-American military-industrial capitalism in Burroughs’s. PUC Minas2017-10-23info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfhttp://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/scripta/article/view/P.2358-3428.2017v21n42p21710.5752/P.2358-3428.2017v21n42p217Scripta; Vol 21 No 42: Scripta 42; 217-235Scripta; v. 21 n. 42: Exílios e Diásporas na Literatura; 217-2352358-34281516-4039reponame:Revista Scriptainstname:Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais (PUC Minas)instacron:PUC_MINSenghttp://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/scripta/article/view/P.2358-3428.2017v21n42p217/12402https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessDeGuzmán, María2019-11-28T18:44:35Zoai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/15178Revistahttp://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/scripta/userhttp://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/scripta/oai||cespuc@pucminas.br2358-34281516-4039opendoar:2019-11-28T18:44:35Revista Scripta - Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais (PUC Minas)false |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Fatal Hieroglyph: Mexico for Writers of Exile Malcolm Lowry and William Burroughs |
title |
Fatal Hieroglyph: Mexico for Writers of Exile Malcolm Lowry and William Burroughs |
spellingShingle |
Fatal Hieroglyph: Mexico for Writers of Exile Malcolm Lowry and William Burroughs DeGuzmán, María Malcolm Lowry William S. Burroughs Mexico Hieroglyph Exile Literature of exile Modernism Postmodernism. |
title_short |
Fatal Hieroglyph: Mexico for Writers of Exile Malcolm Lowry and William Burroughs |
title_full |
Fatal Hieroglyph: Mexico for Writers of Exile Malcolm Lowry and William Burroughs |
title_fullStr |
Fatal Hieroglyph: Mexico for Writers of Exile Malcolm Lowry and William Burroughs |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fatal Hieroglyph: Mexico for Writers of Exile Malcolm Lowry and William Burroughs |
title_sort |
Fatal Hieroglyph: Mexico for Writers of Exile Malcolm Lowry and William Burroughs |
author |
DeGuzmán, María |
author_facet |
DeGuzmán, María |
author_role |
author |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
DeGuzmán, María |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
Malcolm Lowry William S. Burroughs Mexico Hieroglyph Exile Literature of exile Modernism Postmodernism. |
topic |
Malcolm Lowry William S. Burroughs Mexico Hieroglyph Exile Literature of exile Modernism Postmodernism. |
description |
This essay explores the representation of Mexico in the work of British modernist writer of exile Malcolm Lowry and of U.S. Anglo-American post-war, postmodern writer of exile William Burroughs. Lowry’s Under the Volcano (1947) and Burroughs’s trilogy The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket that Exploded (1962), and The Nova Express (1964) represent Mexico as a land of fatal hieroglyphs, as itself a fatal hieroglyph. Theoretically, a hieroglyph, as a condensation of space and time, is always already fatal — “an anticipation of the end in the beginning” [Jean Baudrillard]. The fatal sign constitutes an attempted exorcism of conventional reality governed by the status quo. For Lowry and Burroughs, Mexico as place and text is the locus of the exorcism of demons, personal and cultural. In turning Mexico into a fatal hieroglyph of doom, both modernist and postmodernist writers draw on a long tradition of stereotyping primitivizations of Mexico. However, in the cases of Lowry and Burroughs, these stereotypical primitivizations also function as alternative modes of knowledge, symbol-making, and anti-narration, deliberate plumbings of the non-linear, irrational, and trans-temporal to deliver a backhanded blow against the European and Gringo colonizer / conqueror in Lowry’s case and the malaise of Anglo-American military-industrial capitalism in Burroughs’s. |
publishDate |
2017 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2017-10-23 |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
http://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/scripta/article/view/P.2358-3428.2017v21n42p217 10.5752/P.2358-3428.2017v21n42p217 |
url |
http://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/scripta/article/view/P.2358-3428.2017v21n42p217 |
identifier_str_mv |
10.5752/P.2358-3428.2017v21n42p217 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
http://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/scripta/article/view/P.2358-3428.2017v21n42p217/12402 |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
PUC Minas |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
PUC Minas |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
Scripta; Vol 21 No 42: Scripta 42; 217-235 Scripta; v. 21 n. 42: Exílios e Diásporas na Literatura; 217-235 2358-3428 1516-4039 reponame:Revista Scripta instname:Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais (PUC Minas) instacron:PUC_MINS |
instname_str |
Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais (PUC Minas) |
instacron_str |
PUC_MINS |
institution |
PUC_MINS |
reponame_str |
Revista Scripta |
collection |
Revista Scripta |
repository.name.fl_str_mv |
Revista Scripta - Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais (PUC Minas) |
repository.mail.fl_str_mv |
||cespuc@pucminas.br |
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1798329530905001984 |