What's up with José Agustín?

Abstract

This article analyzes the narrative work of José Agustín as one of the most representative expressions of Mexico’s Literature of the Onda, emphasizing its formal experimentation, generic hybridity, and close relationship with youth counterculture. The study focuses particularly on the novel El rey se acerca a su templo (1977), examining the fusion of novel and poetry, the use of colloquial and cinematic language, and the incorporation of elements from the I Ching and psychedelic journeys as symbolic narrative structures. Through an analysis of the hexagram Lü (Treading), the article shows how the characters—especially Ernesto—are configured as liminal figures oscillating between strength and weakness, dominance and submission, becoming victims of a corrupt social, judicial, and moral system. Prison, rather than functioning solely as a space of punishment, paradoxically appears as a site of personal reorganization and conflict resolution. The article also addresses the notions of external and internal light as metaphors for the duality between spiritual knowledge and sensory experience, closely linked to psychedelic drug use and the search for individuation. The study concludes that José Agustín’s narrative offers a symbolic critique of modern society, in which marginalized and victimized subjects expose the contradictions of the dominant social and cultural order.