Spectral Dialogues: Unveiling Histories of Injustice in Pedro Paramo Through Lyotard’s “Differend” and Derrida’s “Hauntology”

Authors : Ayda Önder

Pages : 225-241

Doi:10.33207/trkede.1514447

View : 84 | Download : 58

Publication Date : 2025-01-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study investigates the spectral presence of the past in the contemporary world of Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo (1955) through theoretical framework of Lyotard’s concept of “differend” and Derrida’s “hauntology”. It is argued that conflicts between peasants and local rulers under the system of caciquismo following the Mexican Revolution result in a differend because the discourse of rule of judgment serving the interests only of those in power like Pedro Paramo, does not allow peasants to present their damages and seek justice. Since the causes of peasants remain unresolved when they die, the burden of the past marks the present. Like Derrida’s specters, the deceased return to demand that their history is heard. The peasants haunt the living to relate their version of reality unheeded when they were alive. It is claimed that spectral hauntings function as a kind of language communicating the history of oppressed peasants. Hauntings prove that voices of the past cannot be simply denied or buried. The act of return through reconnection with the deceased in a spectral language provides prospects for justice, considering that the specter has the power to transgress ontological boundaries, disrupt established structures, and bring about substantial changes that would reframe society.
Keywords : differend, hauntoloji, gotik, spektralite, spektral dil, adalet

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