Mariano Azuela (Mexico, 1873-1952) was a medical doctor by profession, recipient of Mexico's Premio Nacional de Literatura (1949), a distinguished member of El Colegio Nacional and, by mid-century, one of Mexico's leading novelists and literary critics. The author of novels, novellas, plays, biographies, and literary criticism, Azuela served as field doctor under Francisco Villa during the Mexican Revolution and, after Villa's military defeats in 1915, published Los de abajo (The Underdogs, 1915) while in exile in El Paso, Texas. This book of essays commemorates the first centenary of Los de abajo, and traces its impact on twentieth-century autobiographies, memoirs and, more specifically, on the Novel of the Mexican Revolution.Equestrian Rebels: Critical Perspectives on Mariano Azuela and the Novel of the Mexican Revolution includes a full-length introduction and nineteen essays by leading international scholars who study Azuela and other novelists of the Mexican Revolution - such as Martín Luis Guzmán, Nellie Campobello and, among others, José Rubén Romero - from current, yet contrasting and innovative theoretical perspectives. Especially written for this volume, these critical essays are grouped into five sections that separately probe and analyze Azuela's realism and contemporary affinities with photography; Azuela's literary criticism; centennial studies on Los de abajo; critical approaches to other novels by Azuela; three independent analyses of Nellie Campobello's Cartucho (1931); and a concluding section on literary representations of Mexican colonialism and revolution in the narratives of Juan Rulfo (El llano en llamas), Carlos Fuentes (Gringo viejo), and David Toscana (El último lector). This book will be of importance to scholars, teachers, students, and the general reader interested in topics related to the literary, cultural, and political forces and conflicts that led to the transformation of Mexico into a modern nation Intro -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Part One: Mariano Azuela's Realism -- La crítica literaria de Mariano Azuela -- Photography and the Literature of the Mexican Revolution -- Novela y fotografía de la postrevoluci n -- Relearning the Revolution -- Part Two: Mariano Azuela and his Generation -- Mariano Azuela, la novela de la revolución y la revolución mexicana vistos por los escritores españoles -- The 'Man-Beast' and the Jaguar -- Los Contemporáneos y su lectura de Mariano Azuela -- Part Three: Centennial Studies on Los de abajo -- Accidentes de tránsito -- Jean-Luc Nancy's Mythical Community in Mariano Azuela's Los de abajo and Carlos Fuentes' Gringo viejo -- "Los árboles no dejan ver el bosque" -- "Esta me cuadra y me la llevo" -- Part Four: Mariano Azuela and Nellie Campobello -- Ethos y postura de Nellie Campobello -- Épica en modo menor o guerrilla narrativa en Cartucho de Nellie Campobello -- Dos perspectivas sobre los revolucionarios villistas -- Part Five: Mariano Azuela and the Narrative Representations of Mexican Colonialism and Revolution -- Carlos Fuentes -- Don Porfirio's Indian Problem -- Medical Doctor, Occultist, Revolutionary, Spy -- Like Marco Polo in Michoacán -- Juan Rulfo and the Mexican Novel of the Twenty-First Century -- Contributors
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