Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the connection between Juan Rulfo’s fiction and photography through the technique of poetic evocation, a key aspect of Rulfo's poetic resistance to the rhetoric of a 'Revolution' that was institutionalised by the time of the publication of his works in the 1950s.

Paper long abstract:

The fiction of Juan Rulfo has frequently and long been subjected to poetics-based analyses, for example bathos and catachresis (Thakkar 2012), orality (Perus, 1998) and imagery (Merrell, 1977). Very little work has been done on his photography beyond Béatrice Tatard's work of 1994, Juan Rulfo, photographe. Esthétique du royaume des âmes. This paper will build on the links between Rulfo's fiction and photography that I briefly analysed in the context of postcolonialism (2012) to explore further connections, especially the possibility of a poetic as well as a thematic connection between the two. I will examine that connection through the technique of poetic evocation: of certain words (llorar, calor etc.), of phrases (for example, 'allá ellos' and '´¡Mueran los caciques!') and of concepts (for example, nothingness and dignity). The paper will explore the extent to which such evocation is a key aspect of Rulfo's poetic resistance to the prevailing rhetoric of a 'Revolution' that was institutionalised by the time of the publication of his works in the 1950s. It will conclude by considering the relevance of such a poetic critique in present-day Mexico.