Juan Goytisolo's "Juegos de Manos": An Archetypal Interpretation

Abstract

THE ARCHETYPAL APPROACH to literary study is viable only insofar as it illumines the universality of the particular human experience which a given work expresses. This universality the archetypal critic usually searches out in the recurring constants of motif and symbol. Among the motifs which surface consistently throughout man's history is that of the scapegoat, sometimes designated the propitiatory victim or sacrificial lamb. Characteristically, the scapegoat redeems his people by consciously and willingly assuming their collective guilt and allowing himself to be sacrificed in atonement for their sins. Although the motif has been realized through a plethora of scapegoat figures, both real and fictitious, undoubtedly its most enduring expression was Jesus Christ, who continues to influence as a literary archetype even in this century, providing, for example, thematic unity in such novels as The Greek Passion by Nikos Kazantzakis and The Fable by William Faulkner. Less faithful to the details of Christ's Passion than either The Greek Passion or The Fable, but nevertheless following the directive lines of the scapegoat motif are the writings of contemporary Spanish novelists like Ana Maria Matute, Jesuis Fernandez Santos, and Juan Goytisolo.1 Of the two novels by Goytisolo which clearly portray a scapegoat figure, Juegos de manos and Duelo en el pardiso, the former reveals a more consistent and coherent treatment of the theme.