Abstract

The present Master's Thesis (TFF) qualitatively analyzes the novel Cambio de Guardia,
by the Peruvian author Julio Ramón Ribeyro, in the context of the so-called “dictator
novel” in Latin America. Starting from an analysis that employs multiple approaches
(historicist, classic, and thematic, among others), it aims to show that this novel is the
result of a tension between the classic and experimental elements in Ribeyro, at his
greatest moment of political commitment.

Simultaneously, it attempts to put into practice the theories of the novel that Ribeyro
developed in several articles. What Cambio de Guardia ultimately represents is an
experimental hybrid between avant-garde narrative forms and a fierce attack on
institutions such as the military, the clergy, and the oligarchy, written from a skeptical
and rather classical viewpoint on the part of the author.

Among other peculiarities, the book’s representation of the dictator – the novel deals with
the unfolding of a coup d'état, and as such affords a behind-the-scenes look at a future
tyrant – grows out of an ironic and scathing stance consistent with the author’s intention
to ridicule and dismantle the myth of the dictator as an omnipotent figure.

This novel, sui generis within the work of Ribeyro for its style and theme, calls into
question and invites us to rethink the standard commonplaces about Ribeyro and his work,
as it moves away from its customary classicism and towards formal experimentation,
while also focusing on politics as the central (though not sole) axis of his novel.

Keywords: Julio Ramón Ribeyro, politics and literature, classicism, experimental,

dictator novel, committed writer, revolution, Latin America, skepticism.