aventura del heroe: Una aproximacion critica a "Lituma en los Andes" de Mario Vargas Llosa

Lituma en los Andes tackles the universal substance of myths, its atavistic stock of culture, prejudice and superstitions, which applied to the complex Peru uncovers taboos and reveals a political statement, whose non-fictional counterpart can be found in La utopia arcaica: Jose Maria Arguedas y las ficciones del indigenismo, by the same author. This thesis uses a mythological and archetypal approach to prove that the narration--whose underlying element are Andean myths--is structured as the mythological adventure of a hero who must comply with the archetypal rites of passage: separation, initiation, and return. Lituma's trials lead him to a social and spiritual maturity and to discover the mysterious ancestral Peru, disdained by the more westernized Peruvians of the coast. The Andeans' fear of foreigners is represented by the myth of the pishtaco or throat-cutter, counterpart of the classical Minotaur. The encounter of the two scissioned worlds is only possible through love and friendship, in the framework of a pluralistic society, which is suggested by the novel's resolution.