La guerra entre México y los Estados Unidos en la novela El fistol del diablo, de Manuel Payno

This essay proposes three levels of analysis for a better understanding of the novel El fistol del diablo, by Manuel Payno. First, the contributions of Payno to the development of the historical novel in Mexico, above all in the novelistic treatment of the war between Mexico and the United States in 1846-1848 (the principal focus of the novel); second, the changes of order and deletion of chapters and narrative links in El fistol del diablo throughout its three editions, something which leads us to propose that of the three novels by Payno, apparently that of most importance for the author was El fistol del diablo, keeping him occupied in various editions across a span of more than forty years. Tird, a reading of El fistol del diablo is grounded in our own historic circumstances -for example, the war of occupation by the United States in Iraq and in Afghanistan- maintaining that such a critical reading cannot limit itself to merely literary questions, since historical parallels of military occupation may be sources for a better comprehension of historical novels such as El fistol del diablo.