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.
- According
to Paz, how did the Revolution fail?
- What
happened to Paz’s style when he turned to the topic of history.
- Who
was Paz’s model of an intellectual who fell into the trap of writing
themselves into the political trap?
- 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?
- What
does Paz mean when he says that to defend love is a revolutionary act?
- When
Paz calls for his revolution of love, where does he say it can be carried
out?
- What
national project attracted more attention than Paz’s Labyrinth of
Solitude in 1950?
- Which
architectural styles vied for prominence after the Revolution?
- Why
was it difficult to fit murals into the modern buildings?
- How
did the Mexican architects take advantage of the opportunities offered by
the local site?
- How
did the builders resolve the problem of the lack of large construction
equipment?
- How was the large building project
administered?
- Why
can it be said that the University City combined the local and global?
- 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?