Remediated Encounters in Carlos Morton’s Johnny Tenorio and Pancho Diablo - Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 16, 1 (2024) 184–197

DOI: 10.47745/ausp-2024-0012

Abstract. This paper aims to identify those protagonists who occupy the position of dramatic remediators in the process of mending broken relationships in Carlos Morton’s Johnny Tenorio (1983) and Pancho Diablo (1987). The research sets out from Jacques Derrida’s essay Plato’s Pharmacy, where the work of art is considered to be the fountain “perhaps with curative powers” (Derrida 1981, 70) in re-examining past relationships. On the level of the narrative, remediated encounters have the role of rebuilding interpersonal relationships with the help of designated arbitrating entities with an independent, self-contained existence. Considering their level of involvement in the outcome of the plot, Carlos Morton’s subjective, semi-objective, as well as indirect empathic, partial, or detached remediators assume the position of non-judgemental, non-political, self-sufficient individuals who initiate the process of self-discovery in a subjective time frame designated for this purpose. According to Susana Monica Tapodi’s study (2017), certain obsolete traumatized characters, such as hedonists, intellectuals, and medieval knights, assisted by their alter-egos, attempt to mend the resulting broken discourse occurring at borderline situations determining the individual’s (post-)existence.

Keywords: hedonism, dramatic remediation, subjective-semi-objective mediators, identity.