Open AccessMexican Existentialist Ethics and the Pragmatic Authenticity of Rodolfo Usigli's El gesticulador
Author(s) -
Stephanie Merrim
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 6
eISSN - 2564-1662
pISSN - 0384-8167
DOI - 10.18192/rceh.v43i2.4656
Subject(s) - existentialism , communitarianism , drama , sociology , politics , identity (music) , philosophy , aesthetics , literature , epistemology , law , art , liberalism , political science
This article explores the genesis of Mexican literary existentialism in Usigli’s 1938 play, El gesticulador. It elucidates various key drives of Mexican existentialism from Usigli’s moment onward and situates Usigli’s literary existentialism within those drives. In so doing, the essay articulates the deeply-rooted ethical bent of a Mexican existentialism forged in the orbit of identity discourse. It argues that Usigli’s morally equivocal drama makes unexpected common cause with that bent: dynamically conjugating stagecraft, Mexican philosophy, and post-revolutionary politics, El gesticulador advances a pragmatic authenticity based on altruism, communitarianism, and principles over Truth.