Lecture Study Questions

The Labyrinths of Modernity  #2

Bruce-Novoa

 

Reading:  Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude

May 24-25

 

1.      What does Octavio Paz mean when he says that in 1950 there is no longer a center.

 

  1. According to Paz, how did the Revolution fail?

 

  1. What happened to Paz’s style when he turned to the topic of history.

 

  1. Who was Paz’s model of an intellectual who fell into the trap of writing themselves into the political trap?

 

  1. What is the first sign that Paz is returning to his poetic subtext?

 

      6.  How does the quote, "All men, at some moment in their lives, feel themselves to be alone. And they are” p. 195, signal a return to the start of the book?

 

7.  According to Paz, what happens in the act of love, p. 197?

 

  1. What does Paz mean when he says that to defend love is a revolutionary act?

 

  1. When Paz calls for his revolution of love, where does he say it can be carried out?

 

  1. What national project attracted more attention than Paz’s Labyrinth of Solitude in 1950?

 

  1. Which architectural styles vied for prominence after the Revolution?

 

  1. Why was it difficult to fit murals into the modern buildings?

 

  1. How did the Mexican architects take advantage of the opportunities offered by the local site? 

 

  1. How did the builders resolve the problem of the lack of large construction equipment?

 

  1.  How was the large building project administered?

 

  1. Why can it be said that the University City combined the local and global?

 

  1. What is meant by a pre-Columbian site base?

 

 

       10. Why does Prof. Bruce-Novoa say that muralism was an imposition on the University City that contradicted the goal of fusing the modern with the ancient?

 

11.    What saved the Stadium from losing its pre-Columbian purity of design?

 

12.    How did the Latin American Tower represent international modernism without political pastiche?

 

      13.  Between the Mexican fusion of the international and the pre-Columbian of the University City and the pure international modernism of the Latin American Tower, what was the project that Prof. Bruce-Novoa offered as a third alternative?

 

      14.  How can The Echo be interpreted to represent a return to the original “wound” of Mexican culture, and hence, a form of national liberation?