Time, Memory, and Melancholia in Elena Garro’s Los Recuerdos del Porvenir

Elena Garro’s Los recuerdos del porvenir presents a time that appears to be stuck and characters desperate to break free. Aspects of the novel’s use of time and memory have been traditionally read as representative of either indigenous or feminine temporalities, but while Recuerdos has been described as melancholic there has not been a thorough analysis of the text in terms of this aspect. This paper will present an argument for Recuerdos as a text largely marked by a melancholic tendency, as well as an exposition of what this tendency signifies. Time and memory, beyond merely reflecting alternate subject positions, create an anxious desire to live new possibilities while at the same time abolishing any space where these may occur. I hope that by focusing on how the novel is structured through melancholia, I can highlight the way in which Garro deploys these concepts in service of its tragic finale.