El poder, el mito y la dominación en El otoño del patriarca

Abstract

The essay studies the conception of power in The Autumn of the Patriarch, for this purpose the main theoretical positions on this topic are analyzed, particularly on power as domination. In addition to the above, the mechanisms that generate obedience, both coercive and voluntary, present in the novel are identified, especially the construction of the dictator̀ s myth as a form of people domination, and its demystification is analyzed in parallel. The mythological configuration of the patriarch in the work reveals the common history of the Latin American villages dominated by dictatorial figures for the sake of “order” versus chaos and the instability suffered in the post-independence periods.