The Daughters of La Malinche: A Heideggerian Analysis of the Pazian Archetypal Masks Portrayed in Art
Abstract
In this thesis, I present a Heideggerian phenomenological analysis of the Pazian archetypal masks present in The Labyrinth of Solitude, such as El Macho, La Llorona, La Mala Mujer, La Chingada, and La Malinche, and how these masks are represented and depicted by women in art. I analyze the authentic or inauthentic identity and conditions expressed by Mexican women in art through a mimetic lens and extend that analysis to gendered concerns that have emerged in the past fifty or so years in Mexico and the U.S. Mexico border. Such issues include the pervasive machismo culture and the alarming increase in the rates of femicides as depicted in art. These issues are intrinsically linked to various female archetypes, a connection this study explores by analyzing the Pazian archetypal masks mentioned above. I utilize the art of Maria Izquierdo, Frida Kahlo, and Irisol Gonzalez-Vega to focus on the particularity of Mexican women. Drawing from Heidegger’s “Analytic of Dasein,” I grapple with issues such as authenticity and inauthenticity, thrownness, everydayness, and the overarching importance of care and guilt to explore how art paves a path for the authentic understanding of the other, specifically through the use of the Pazian archetypal masks mentioned above. Art, by disclosing and bringing to the forefront the thrown and inauthentic situations of the other, allows for a call of conscience in which the concepts of guilt, care, and love disclose the potential authentic Being of the Other.
Subject Area
Philosophy|Aesthetics|Womens studies|Art education
Recommended Citation
Torres, At-Ziry Aileen, "The Daughters of La Malinche: A Heideggerian Analysis of the Pazian Archetypal Masks Portrayed in Art" (2024). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI31300261.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI31300261