SOURCE: "Authority and Identity in Rulfo's El llano en llantas" in MLN: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 101, No. 2, March, 1986, pp. 395-404.

In this essay, Boldy examines the role of discourse in Rulfo's short fiction.

There is a point in most of the stories of El llano en llamas where an individual comes up against the discourse of others, in the form of an accusation or declaration, and is annulled by it. His memory, knowledge, consciousness, sanity or even identity is destroyed. My first task is to describe the mechanism of that loss of consciousness. Though the alien discourse originates in a clearly identifiable figure of authority (cacique, parent, priest, government, army, the law), it is usually medíated by an unidentifiable impersonal or plural voice. The second question is thus why the voice of authority has become so fragmented, impersonal and empty. Three factors recur constantly: violence, transgression of...