The unreasonableness of the imperative: Macario by Juan Rulfo

Abstract

The article explains the functioning of the dominant discourse and its system of references in Macario (El llano en llamas, 1953) by Juan Rulfo (1917-1986). It proposes a reading of the story as an allegory of the domination of a dictatorship and the state of alienation suffered by the Mexican people during the period immediately preceding the Mexican Revolution (1910). To achieve this purpose, the socio-semiotic status of the speaking subject and the convergence network of the signs that define it are widely analyzed. Thus, it is possible to highlight a precise codification of social elaborations in the discursive structure, which permeates the perception displayed by the figure of the subject of the enunciation.