The co-existence of dichotomous realms : a study of Ron arias’ "The Road to Tamazuncahle"

Abstract EN

The present study examines the way Ron Arias‘ The Road to Tamazunchale (1975) appropriates the magical realist mode of storytelling to explore the co-existence of dichotomous realms rooted in the cross-racial encounters of mainstream culture and resistant consciousness.

Grasping the prominent tendencies of the dominant culture to suppress the narratives of the marginalized in order to fix the image of the ‗subaltern,‘ Arias seeks to disrupt mainstream binary categories postulated on exclusion and purity.

Hence, his dying protagonist Fausto embarks on a mental journey in which irreducible boundaries between the real and the unreal, life and death and past and present are dissolved.

Accordingly, logical linearity is broken and he ably deconstructs dominant dichotomous structures of oppressive powers and transcends mortality; thereby, he creates life in its fullest human sense to reflect the native cultural concept of the cycle of life and death, as well as rebirth repeated unendingly and to secure a voice to the marginalized subaltern