Death in three works of ecuadorian children's literature by Teresa Crespo

Abstract

In this article, I highlight the most valuable narrativework of Ecuadorian writer Teresa Crespo Toral (1928-2014), who has been considered a pioneer of children'sand young adult literature in Ecuador. The aim of thistext is to contrast the way in which the narrative texts"Pepe Golondrina" (1969), "Mateo Simbaña" (1981)and "Ana de los Ríos" (1986) approach child death as acentral theme from settings of a rather realistic nature; asecondary objective is related to locating Teresa Crespo'swork within Ecuadorian and Latin American children'sand young adult literature. I resort to the analysis of thethemes and archetypes related to the theme of death andchild suicide. I show that in the three stories child deathhas been sublimated by the narrative voice and that itsthree child protagonists become victims who sacrificethemselves for the sake of a greater individual or socialgood. In addition, I noted that these narratives couldhelp the young reader in his or her literary formationand social-emotional development. I also appreciatedthat the works resort to certain intertextual references(for example, ancestral myths such as "The condorin love") and echo the spirit of Ecuadorian children'sliterature proper to the Ecuadorian context, which ischaracterized by the appropriation of a collective identitycrossed by a mestizo language and local migration. 1 The author signs under different names: Teresa Crespo, Teresa Crespo Toral, Teresa Crespo de Salvador.