SOURCE: "The Great Theatre of the World: Alejo Carpentier and Los Pasos Perdidos," in Crítica Hispánica, Vol. VIII, No. 1, 1986, pp. 61-71.

In the following essay, Natella discusses the concept of "theatrum mundi," or "the idea that life is a stage and we are all its actors," as it applies to Carpentier's Los pasos perdidos.

Alejo Carpentier's famous novel of one man's attempt to retrace his roots back through the jungles of South America, Los pasos perdidos, is a brilliant evocation of the rootlessness of modern man. It is a novel that has received critical acclaim, and has been the subject of careful scrutiny by numerous scholars. Although the central themes of the work have been discussed many times, one of the main, allegorical themes of the novel has yet to receive, to the best of our knowledge, complete study even though it is an important, integral...