Pastoralism, Parricide, and the PRI: Nostalgia and Self-Awareness in Yáñez's Al filo del agua

Parricide is deeply intertwined with the notion of Revolution: the parricide at the central point of Agustín Yáñez's Al filo del agua (1947) is thematically linked to killing the father in the political sense. In this article I relate the process of the son rising to challenge the father to the overthrow of the antiguo régimen, especially in their aftermath; the outcome of both types of parricide can lead to self-awareness, especially after revolution has become "institutionalized" (as in the PRI, or Partido Revolucionario Institucional). To build my argument, I offer an excursion through the literary-historical genre of pastoral nostalgia, which informs this novel, as well as a parallel to Dostoevski's "Parable of the Grand Inquisitor" from Brothers Karamazov. I conclude that this post-traumatic introspection often leads to the classic philosophical problem of Free Will—or the lack thereof.