The word, the beast, the Indian: Animal codes in the literary characterization of the Native American in 'Cumanda', 'Huasipungo' and 'El Indio'

My dissertation is a modification of a structural linguistic and a sociopolitical literary analysis as to the form and content of animal codes and their relationship to the literary characterization of the Indian in three novels that are representative of the geographical expanse and the literary tendencies of the Latin American novelistic trajectory, with respect to the American indigenous subject.;I examine in Cumanda (1879), Huasipungo (1934) and El indio (1935) how: (1) language exists as a system of coded representation that involves an arbitrary and flexible relationship between syntactic and semantic levels of form and content; (2) animal codes are used in language and literature as literal and figurative devices that encode difference and similarity in the binary system of language to create comparison and contrast to define the human subject; and (3) the history and development of the literary characterization of the American indigenous subject has been represented with animal codes.;My work posits that when there is a change in the form and use of animal codes in certain novels, there is also a concomitant change in the manner the Indian is portrayed. I explore the manner in which these novels that treat the Native American are influenced by the form and function of animal codes and how they work to create an artistic and ideological representation of reality and the sociopolitical purposes achieved. My study traces the cycle of bestial descriptive discourse that has manipulated the literary characterization of the Native American and has influenced their identity and treatment within society. I seek to understand to what extent an animal discourse permeates human conscience and language, and how this discourse influences the perception and identity of ethnic groups and literary subjects. There is an inherent relationship between linguistic animal codes in the literary portrayal of the Indian and the rhetorical strategies used by authors to reflect the struggle between the hegemonic and marginal sectors of Latin American society.