Juan jose arreola, born september 21, 1918, ciudad guzman, mexicodied december 3, 2001, guadalajara, mexican shortfiction writer and humorist who was a master of brief subgenres, such as the short story, the epigram, and the sketch. Amaryl lids to download pdf you need some things, like my website and the name of the file. Like most of arreolas stories, the switchman can be interpreted in a variety of waysas an allegory of the pitfalls of the mexican train system, an existential horror story of lifes absurdities and human limitation, and the authors desire to laugh in spite of the insanities of the world and human interaction. Although he never finished elementary school, he managed to teach himself to read and got a job as an apprentice to a bookbinder.
Jun 18, 2019 amaryl lids to download pdf you need some things, like my website and the name of the file. The short story was originally published as a confabulario, a word created in spanish by arreola, in 1952, in the collection confabulario and other inventions. Juan jose arreola arreola, juan jose short story criticism. En 1934 escribio sus tres primeros textos literarios. A stranded railroad traveler waits for months to board a train that never arrives, only to discover that schedules, routes, and even the landscapes seen from the windows of railroad cars. Mexican poet and short story writer juan jose arreola reads from his. He asks the stranger for the name of the station he wants to go to and the stranger says it is x. Suddenly, a train approaches and the switchman begins to.
In 1959 he was the founding director of the casa del lago, the first offcampus cultural center of the national autonomous university of mexico, now called the casa del lago juan jose arreola. The englishlanguage version was taken from confabulario. As the stranger is very interested in this, the switchman once again encourages the stranger to try his luck, but warns him not to talk to fellow passengers, who may be spies, and to watch. One of 14 children, arreola had to leave school at age eight. Three years arrrola arreola received a scholarship to study in paris, where he may well have read these highly acclaimed essays. Instead of getting on the train in an orderly fashion, they devote themselves to crushing one another. Juan jose arreola, mexican shortfiction writer and humorist who was a. Juan jose arreola 1918 mexican short story writer, novelist, essayist, nonfiction writer, and playwright. In 1963, he received the xavier villaurrutia prize. The story is both, as well as an allegory of modern technological society and a critique of the entire universe, whose functioning seems to be in the hands of a very minor employee, a switchman who is like an incompetent minor god. Juan jose arreola, jill hartley, dulce maria zuniga. When the stranger asks the switchman how he knows all of this, the switchman replies that he is a retired switchman who visits train stations to reminisce about old times. Entre 1926 y 1929 desarrollo sus estudios basicos en su ciudad natal.
It seems that, although an elaborate network of railroads has been planned and partially completed, the service is highly unreliable. As the stranger is very interested in this, the switchman once again encourages the stranger to try his luck, but warns him not to talk to fellow passengers, who may be spies, and to watch out for mirages that the railroad company generates. Hailed as mexicos premier experimental short story writer of the twentieth century. Estudio en jalisco y en 1930 empezo a trabajar como.
In the final lines of arreolas story the assertion of the stranger now referred to as the traveler that he is going to x rather than t indicates that he has become an absurd man ready to set out for an unknown destination. Juan jose arreola, 1918 2001 juan jose arreola was born in 1918 in ciudad guzman in the western state of jalisco. Reason, in english the word reason has long had, and still has. Charles dickens, english novelist, generally considered the greatest of the victorian era.
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