María Bermúdez’s “The Puzzle of the Broken Watch” (1948) is an interesting piece of detective fiction in terms of its conformity to the genre norms. While the short story does adhere to the genre expectations of the ratiocination era of detective fiction, there are subtle unconventional elements that stand out as holding importance.
This short story is immediately placed within the ratiocination sub-genre of detective fiction by introducing Miguel, the main investigator, reading. Bermúdez does also satisfy several of Borges’ rules for detective fiction, including; no more than six main characters; a temporal distance between the crime and investigation; minimal blood and gore; and a logical and plausible solution. However, after discussing Bermúdez’s academic and advocacy background, I think it is important to consider the ways that she strays from tradition and the importance of it.
Miguel is employed to investigate the crime because the police failed to effectively serve justice and protect the public. Additionally, the murderer is a member of the police force. These two elements are important because it breaks against the genre norm of the detective working with the police to serve justice. However, it is the criminal in this story who works with the police, as a police officer, offering him protection from suspicion. I would argue that this reversal acts as a critique of police corruption; the state fails to protect its people by both actively harming innocent civilians, symbolized by Rosa’s murder, but also by ineffectively carrying out justice. The police force’s integrity is questioned and critiqued in this story, there is no glorification of the state as an instrument for serving justice.
Bermúdez’s active participation in women’s rights also has me considering the importance of the female victim. Since the story places more importance on ‘who’ rather than ‘how’ the choice of a female as the victim seems deliberate to me, especially in this male-dominated genre. The investigation focuses quite heavily on motives and ultimately the proposed motive is jealousy. Rosa was an innocent young woman who exercised her right to say no to a man. Her murder stands out to me as a critique of the possessive nature of men and the danger women face when they exercise autonomy.
Bermúdez breaking these norms is potentially a form of her activism. As we discussed in the interventionism section, short stories can act as powerful tools for creating an empathetic understanding of complex and harsh realities. The shocking revelation of Ismael, a police officer, as the murderer of an innocent woman, may be Bermúdez’s way of conveying a message about her society.
Hi Anna! First, I love your title. Second, I find your point about Bermúdez choosing a female victim very interesting. It reminded me about the current 4th wave feminist movements in Mexico. Movements like Ni Una Menos, whose purpose is ceasing the neglect and violence against women and demanding justice and responsibility from the State about the high number of women’s deaths and disappearances which remain ignored. Although I am not sure if femicides in Mexico were comparable or similar to the numbers today, I find a parallel in her story to a continuing phenomenon in Mexican society, where patriarchal structures have been built to extract women’s power over their bodies and lives. It is actually quite sad, how this “fictional” story was written in the 60s, but continues to speak to current Mexican society.
I loved the title, too, Andrea! Your response to Anna’s post is very thought provoking. Likewise, you present a convincing and well articulated connection between (1) the historical prevalence of gendered violence in Mexico as depicted in Bermúdez’s story and (2) present-day movements and coalitions that are active in denouncing and dismantling sexist structures and the impunity with which violence is perpetrated against women. Well done! (One note: the story was actually published in the 1940s (there was an error in the Discussion Guide)!)
Wonderful connection across units, Anna. Likewise, it is sometimes dangerous to read too much of an author’s biography into a piece of fiction, but you do an excellent job of supporting your interpretation with direct reference to the story, and the nuances you highlight are convincing. Your post made me revisit the title of the story, “The Puzzle of the Broken Watch” / “El embrollo del reloj”… I’m wondering if the choice of a watch, with the connotations about temporality and progress, might present another level of critique about backward gender norms.
Hey Anna! I really enjoyed how you further analyzed the social critiques of this text that we pointed out in class. I honestly didn’t find that the text contained many of them when I read it initially, but I was proven wrong by our classmates and you that Bermudez does a great job at subtly including these social critiques in her text. I think we start noticing them most when we compare this text to ones written by Borges and others in that time period because it has quite a few differences from the “normal” detective stories of that time. Including a female victim of a lower class killed by a cop didn’t seem too abnormal to me when I read it initially, but after looking at the time period and what was happening in Mexico and the world in terms of women’s rights, it’s clear that Bermudez was trying to bring awareness to the injustices present in society.
Hi Anna, I truly enjoyed reading your post. I totally agree that the author wanted to add more meaningful social context. Specially the way she develops the characters. Since she is a female author, I believe she wanted to construct an image of the circumstances that were happening at the time she was writing the story. She is portraying from a female perspective the corruption and injustice that the country was facing. Moreover, I also think that the characters are Latin American stereotypes. On the other hand, I also liked the way you applied Borge’s rules into Bermúdez story. I didn’t think fully about it until you pointed them out! Thank you for sharing very interesting comments!