Animism in the Teatro campesino of Zavala Cataño

Abstract

This paper proposes an analysis of the book Teatro campesino published in 1969 by Zavala Cataño. The work in question contains seven dramatic works that present the indigenist problem of the land, the vindication of the Indian and the Andean cosmovision as essential features of his «neo-indigenism» (Escajadillo, 1989). Likewise, the superposition of their situations, following Fontanille (2001), clarifies three narrative programs according to the «union» or «disunion» of the peasant with the land. Both subjects are, taking Descola’s (2012) anthropological analysis, in an animistic mode; that is, they possess similarities at the inner level (emotions, subjectivity, etc.) and differences at the physical level (visible features). For this reason, the characters and nature interact, receive teachings, share joys, form an alliance to defeat the hacendado and seek the restoration of their community.