Conflictive worlds in El trueno entre las hojas, a short story collection by Augusto Roa Bastos

Abstract

In this article it is our purpose to analyse recurring patterns, both formal and thematic, in El trueno entre las hojas (1953), which leads us to consider the book as a short story collection with a strong internal unity and coherence. To begin with, the focus is on the influence of surrealism and the socio-political ideas of Roa Bastos. Much of the article is then devoted to the analysis of some concepts of psychoanalytic theory, in particular myths, archetypes and dreams. A comparison is also made between Roa Bastos and García Lorca. The last topic is bilingualism Spanish- Guarani. The short stories of El trueno entre las hojas reveal several conflicts between different worlds: tradition and modernity, myths and civilization, Spanish and Guarani… Roa Bastos provides a universal vision of man through myths that have their origin in a remote past of humanity and that reappear in the Paraguayan people.