A Surprising Choice of Theme

When Las virtudes del pájaro solitario first appeared in 1988 the novel caused a certain sensation, its mystical theme taking readers by surprise. Research by Javier Escudero Rodríguez has since shown that this reaction was somewhat misplaced, given that an obsession with death and an emergent interest in mysticism can be traced in Goytisolo's fiction to at least the time of Makbara. Indeed, looking back even further, we might recall from the discussion above (pp. 94–5) that Juan sin Tierra opens with an allusion to Eastern mysticism, though, admittedly, a pejorative one. The appearance of a religious theme is not, then, an anomaly in Goytisolo's work, although the exclusively positive light in which he came to view religious mysticism in the late 1980s is an unexpected turn in his career.

Mysticism has popular currency today, although less as a religious teaching or experience than as an interest in personal spirituality and growth. But this is not what motivates Goytisolo to read and write about it. His interest is both personal and intellectual – personal, in that he identifies closely with the writing of several mystics from the Christian and Islamic traditions; intellectual, in that he creates from his readings of them a vision of cultural mestizaje that is ethically motivated. Mysticism is thus harnessed by Goytisolo to further more general principles in his writing, namely a celebration of dissidence, pluralism, and intercultural dialogue. The relevance of mysticism to this task is not immediately apparent. Indeed, at first it may seem more of a hindrance than a help, for its appearance in Goytisolo's work creates a series of contradictions: whereas the form of mysticism that Goytisolo enlists is profoundly religious, he professes no faith of his own; whereas mysticism is a highly personal experience, Goytisolo uses it to explore universal ethical preoccupations; and whereas, in certain forms, mysticism may imply a certain loss of a sense of self, as the goal of the mystic is spiritual marriage with the Divine, Goytisolo's fiction, as we have seen, consistently celebrates selfhood as dissidence. But mysticism does offer Goytisolo a new idiom through which to explore his enduring concern with cultural heterodoxy and intellectual intolerance.