Octavio Paz, El laberinto de la soledad [The Labyrinth of Solitude]

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El laberinto de la soledad

[

The Labyrinth of Solitude

] (henceforth,

Laberinto

) was first published in 1950 and is Mexican author Octavio Paz’s most acclaimed and commented upon work. The text has been described as a hybrid work (Stanton 2001: 210), eluding easy classification as it oscillates between epic essay, historical narrative, poetry and psycho-sociological rumination. Perhaps this can be largely explained by

Laberinto’s

broad scope, touching on folklore, history, myth, politics and psychology. All of these disciplines are linked to the central subject of identity and what it meant to be Mexican in the post-Revolutionary era of the 1940s, when Paz was composing

Laberinto

. However, despite the experimental style and the author’s wish to deconstruct certain myths of national…

3940 words

Citation: Baker, Pascale. "El laberinto de la soledad". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 April 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=31812, accessed 28 March 2024.]

31812 El laberinto de la soledad 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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