Lectura fundante y lectura posible: “El matadero” de Esteban Echeverría como texto realista y/o como alegoría saintsimoniana

Abstract

This essay analyzes two ways of reading “El matadero” de Esteban Echeverría. In the first place, the realistic way Juan María Gutiérrez establishes in a footnote he adds to the story when he publishes it for the first time. This realistic way of reading and its topics, that associates “El matadero” with a picture and a testimony by using different metaphors, has been the most commonly followed by literary criticism during all 20th Century. In the second place another way of reading the text will be explored, a one that Jorge Aguilar Mora proposes, an allegorical way that connects it with Echeverría’s saintsimonian thought. This second way of reading allows us to recuperate the story context of production as well as integrates the author’s literary work with his philosophical and political writings.