Text, Figure, Monogram: The Embodiment of the I in the Essayistic ecriture at Octavio Paz's El mono gramatico

This article traces the characteristics of the essayistic as a genuine mode of writing in Modernity, using Octavio Paz's El mono gramatico as an example. This work is regarded as one of the most complex by the 1990 Mexican Nobel Prize laureate and resists classification. It stages ambivalent and unstable figures of 'the essayistic', describing intents of shaping in general, and giving an aesthetic form to the writing subject in particular. The hope for a consistent self-formation is driven by a deep metaphysical ideal, which, however, is repeatedly shattered. In the figure of the Hindu Monkey God Hanuman, the monkey grammarian, Octavio Paz walks the fine line of a writing of oneself between a figurative and integral embodiment of the self and a dissintegrating analytic discursivity. 'The essayistic unfolds in an ethos and aesthetics of endeavor which forces the subject to compromise, leaving it as an unmet aspiration, forever fractured and incomplete. It realizes itself processually as ascesis in intransitive writing and describes a self-critical and performative textual practice.

Automated summary

This article analyzes Octavio Paz's El mono gramatico as an example of the essayistic genre in Modernity. The work defies classification and presents ambivalent figures of 'the essayistic', describing the shaping intent of writing. The exploration of self-writing is manifested through the Hindu Monkey God Hanuman, demonstrating a fine balance between a figurative embodiment of the self and a disintegrating analytic discursivity. The essayistic unfolds as an ethos and aesthetics of endeavor, leading to a fractured and incomplete manifestation of the self.