Three Circuses, Three Novels Looking for a Place to Stay in the Mexican Desert: Territorialization of the Boundaries.

Abstract

This study analyses three novels of the so-called "Desert Narrative" of Northern Mexico: Albedrío (1989) by Daniel Sada, El circo que se perdió en el desierto de Sonora (2002) by Miguel Méndez and Santa María del Circo (1988) by David Toscana. These works tell three stories about travelling circuses composed of rootless and eccentric individua  Is, who begin a meandering trek across the Mexican desert in arder to perform their spectacle, find a place of their own and forge a new identity. The objective of this study is to identify the meanings connected to the image of the desert with a focus on the concepts of destruction, transition and creation. This study reads nomadism and territorialization of the margins as processes of migration from utopian spaces to the boundaries.