Myth and resistance in the work of Gamaliel churata

Abstract

This text investigates how, in the work of the Peruvian writer Gamaliel Churata (1897-1969), the myth becomes a form of active resistance against the vexations and spoliation originated in the colonial period and still in force, in different forms, in its contemporaneity. In particular, I will analyze the recoding done by the author of two symbolic figures, the kharisiri and the Wawaku, a mythical-literary reworking of despotism, of "alterity" in its changing aspects. These figures are related by Churata in El pez de oro (1957), and can be considered as political metaphors against the processes of colonization.