El guardagujas de Juan José Arreola, visto a través del Principio de incertidumbre

Abstract

The following paper formulates an interpretation of the story “The Switchman” by Juan Jose Arreola, as seen through the “uncertainty principle” used in Economics. The uncertainty is shown in the plot of the story as a kind of antagonist that places the main character in a state of alert in the face of life. Juan Jose Arreola uses the arrangement of his text in a symbolic way, reflecting at the same time the distinctive traits of his writing. Despite the evident distance between the fields involved, the uncertainty principle in Economics proves adequate in this discussion since it enables an interpretation that, rather than contradicting previous interpretations, enriches their contribution. The principle derived from Economics (Nieto de Alba, 1989) will be, then, transferred into literary analysis following the guidelines suggested by the narrative metaphor (Garayalde, 2018). Thus, the uncertainty state, besides being the plot trigger, works as a positive catalyst when making decisions.