The Influence of Mexican and Russian Civilizations on Malcolm Lowry’s Shamanic Perceptions

This study of shamanic and psychogeographic influences on the work of Malcolm Lowry considers psychological, anthropological, and ethnographic forces - cultural, social, and linguistic. It elucidates Lowry’s complex mind-set and examines East-West cross-cultural and historical factors. The impact of Sir James Frazer’s ethnographic research and of the actions of Hernán Cortés on Aztec civilization is discussed, as reflected in the novel, Under the Volcano (1947), set in Mexico on the Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead. The way in which Zapotec and Aztec anthropological, shamanic, cabbalistic, and cosmic elements interface with a psychological reading of Lowry’s works is analyzed. Russian nineteenth-century literary and twentieth-century filmic and historical sources are also investigated, as are European avant-garde and surrealist influences.