"El laberinto de la soledad" by Octavio Paz

Abstract

El laberinto de la soledad [The Labyrinth of Solitude] 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 identity, Paz in his authoritative narration of Laberinto actually enshrined these myths as a definitive guide to Mexican identity.