Colonization and early writings
Launched in 1997, excavations at the Monte Verde I site seem to confirm a human presence in Chile dating back to 33,000 BC, a figure that leaves one dreaming. The two notorious tribes who fought to share their ancestral territory, the Mapuches and the Incas, had no written records, so for the time being we have to rely on oral tradition to trace their destiny. However, historians are still wondering about the significance of the knotted cords (quipus) miraculously found, which could be much more than simple accounting data. Fernand de Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe between 1519 and 1522, which led to his discovery of the country in 1520, was well documented, thanks in part to the presence of witnesses who transcribed their memories. Antonio Pigafetta's account was republished in 2018 in a fine critical edition by Chandeigne. In 1535, the Spanish conquistadores attempted to found a colony on Chilean soil. This first venture failed, but the second, the following year, led to their victory... at the cost of violent battles with the indigenous populations. The story of this long conflict, known as the Arauco War, inspired Madrid-born Alonso de Ercilla to write a long epic poem, La Araucana (1569). In this three-part text, which became a reference on both sides of the Atlantic, the writer undoubtedly allowed himself a few approximations and flights of fancy, indulging in lyricism even though he had witnessed the events. The literary and ethnographic value of his verses is no less indisputable. In response, García Hurtado de Mendoza, a Spanish military officer who had been insulted by Alonso de Ercilla's remarks, commissioned Pedro de Oña, born in Angol in 1570, to write another poem presenting him in a much better light: Arauco Domado (1596), which strangely enough often refers to Greco-Roman mythology. Nevertheless, this work is the first to be written by a poet born on Chilean soil.
Alongside the conquistadores and poets, religious figures took part in the colonization, and they too took up the pen, following the example of Alonso de Ovalle, who published Historica relacion del reyno de Chile in 1646, and Diego de Rosales, who published Historia general del Reino de Chile in 1674. This specific trend took on a number of forms: autobiographical with Sor Úrsula Suárez(Relación autobiográfica, 1732), epistolary with Sor Josefa de los Dolores(Espistolario de Sor Dolores Peña y Lillo (Chile, 1763-1769), correspondence collected in 2008), and even poetic with Sor Tadea de San Joaquín(Relación de la inundación que hizo el río Mapocho, 1783). It was with the priest Camilo Henríquez (1769-1825) that letters really began to reach outwards. Drawing his inspiration from the philosophers of the Enlightenment - a fact that got him into trouble with the Inquisition, which questioned him about his reading - the priest published an essay under a pseudonym advocating his country's independence(Proclama de Quirino Lemachez), but above all gave Chile its first newspaper, La Aurora de Chile, the first issue of which appeared on February 13, 1812... and the last in 1813, as it was quickly censored.
Romanticism and Realism
After independence, declared on February 12, 1818 by Bernardo O'Higgins and fully achieved on January 14, 1826 following the Battle of Bellavista, literature began to embrace Romanticism, a movement often tinged with a hint of nationalism, or at any rate confused with the search for a common identity. In Chile, this process is divided into three periods, the first being the Generation of 1837, in the vein of costumbrismo ("study of manners" or "custom"). It is embodied by Mercedes Marin Solar, an educated woman who started a reading salon in her home, and by José Joaquin Vallejo, better known by his nickname Jotabeche. In several titles, notably El Copiapino, which he founded in 1845 in his native Copiapo, he published picturesque scenes of rural life and amusing portraits of his fellow citizens. The Literary Society, founded in 1842, disavowed this traditional, even conservative leaning, and advocated social criticism as a vehicle for change. These intellectuals, gathered around José Victorino Lastarria, aspired to a cultural emancipation that would, in their view, engender political emancipation, thanks to the strengthening of education and the construction of a national literature. The sometimes heated debates, which included Argentinean Domingo Sarmiento and Venezuelan Andrés Bello, took place on the pages of the periodical El Semanario de Santiago, which also published El Campanario, a human and social drama by Salvador Sanfuentes, between two lexical or legal issues. As a reaction, or logically, realism brought this cycle of romantic exploration to a close.
The precursor, and one of its most eminent representatives, is certainly Alberto Blest Gana (1830-1920), whose novel Martín Rivas (1862) earned him the title of father of Chilean literature. A diplomat who lived in London and Paris (he is buried in Père-Lachaise), a connoisseur of French literature and a great admirer of Balzac, he gave his hero a false air of Rastignac, describing a penniless young provincial who settles in the capital, Santiago, in 1850. Blest Gana's work is much more extensive, even if this is the only text to have been translated into our language (and is now unfortunately out of print at La Fosse aux ours), since it also includes Durante la Reconquista (1897), a great political fresco, Los Trasplantados (1904), a satire of high society, and El Loco Estero (1909), inspired by his childhood memories.
The realist movement diversified and continued until the mid-twentieth century. These include the playwright Daniel Barros Grez (1834-1904), whose studies and fables are worthy of mention, Luis Orrego Luco (1866-1948), who opposes the emergence of capitalist society in major novel cycles(Escenas de la vida en Chile, Recuerdos del tiempo viejo), and Baldomero Lillo (1867-1923), champion of social realism, whose collection Subterra focuses on the plight of coal miners. Nor should we forget Augusto Halmar (1882-1950), although his influence has often been downplayed. A naturalist, he was a spokesman for the sordid beauty of the Yungay district in Juana Lucero, published in 1902, and a contributor - like Eduardo Barrios, who won the National Literature Prize in 1946 - to Zig-Zag magazine, but above all he was one of the initiators ofimaginismo. This movement was born in opposition to criollismo, led by Mariano Latorre, whose documentary vocation was to engage the reader in a reflection on rural life.Imaginismo, on the other hand, advocated lightness and emotion, allowing itself every freedom. A vast program that was discovered in the magazine Letras, founded in 1928 by Hernan del Solar, who devoted himself to children's literature, Luis Enrique Delano, author of the remarkable poetry collection El Pescador de estrellas, and Salvador Reyes Figueroa, who never ceased to evoke the sea in his writings. Published in 2022, essayist Alia Trabucco Zerán's novel Limpia marked the Chilean literary year with the story of Estela, a young woman who leaves the city for the countryside.
Poetry and politics
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the revival also rhymed with poetry. Pedro Prado (1886-1952) experimented with free verse in Flores de cardo (1908), followed by poetic prose in La Casa abandonada (1912). The man liked to mix genres, as he proved again in 1915 when he created the Los Diez group, which brought together ten (and many more) artists working in all fields. More astonishingly, in the space of 15 years, Chile witnessed the birth of four immensely talented poets who left their mark on the country's soul: Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), Vicente Huidobro (1893-1948), Pablo de Rokha (1895-1968) and Pablo Neruda (1904-1973). With the vagaries of translation, the first three are certainly too little known in our countries. However, Gabriela Mistral, who grew up in a modest family in the Coquimbo region, was spotted as early as 1914 following her participation in the Jeux Floraux de Santiago, and shot to fame in 1922 with the publication of Desolación. A long career of travels and commitments earned her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945. It's understandable to forget his real name, abandoned in favor of a pseudonym that pays homage to two writers, one Italian and the other Occitan, but it's a shame not to pick up the anthology De désolation en tendresse (Éditions Caractères), which sings of maternal love, childhood and death. Less classical, Vicente Huidobro certainly was, and his style, which plays with metrics and punctuation, confirms this. Close to the Surrealists and Modernists he rubbed shoulders with in Chile, Argentina and France, he is credited with the creationist movement. His Manifestos (1925) can be read at Indigo Editions, who have had the good idea of republishing several of his works. Avant-gardist Pablo de Rokha is certainly the most mysterious, and probably the most complex, and although his bibliography includes some twenty titles, only one can be read in French: Complainte du vieux mâle, published by Brussels-based Lettre volée. Nevertheless, history records his volcanic temperament and visceral hatred of Pablo Neruda, with whom he shared a taste for politics. Commitment was indeed second nature to Neruda, and it's almost certain today that it cost him his life. Chile's second Nobel Prize for Literature (1971), the man is discovered through his autobiography(J'avoue que j'ai vécu, Folio), the poet admired in numerous collections(La Centaine d'amour and Chant général published by Gallimard, Tes pieds je les touche dans l'ombre published by Seghers, Chanson de geste published by Temps des Cerises, etc.)
Politics also influenced literature. The arrival of the Front Populaire gave rise to the Generation of 1938, led by Nicomède Guzman(Los Hombres oscuros, La sangre y la esperanza), closely followed by Gonzalo Drago(Cobre, La Esperanza no se extingue) and Francisco Coloane(Cap Horn, Naufrages, Libretto). While novels are known as neocriollismo, poetry is known as La Mandrágora, named after the collective founded by surrealist poets Braulino Arenas, Teófilo Cid and Enrique Gómez Correa. The coup d'état of 1973 obviously sounded the death knell for this effervescence, but it did not mark the demise of talented writers who, although they were exiled or imprisoned, never ceased to give the world exceptional texts. These include the incredible Roberto Bolaño, whose complete works (2666, Les Détectives sauvages, Le Troisième Reich, etc.) are being republished by Editions de l'Olivier, and Luis Sepúlveda, the cult author of Le Vieux qui lisait des romans d'amour (Editions Métailié), who died in 2020. More recently, let's mention the book Piñen, published in 2019 by young author Daniela Catrileo, which recounts in three stories the daily lives of the Mapuche peoples living on the outskirts of Chilean cities. Poetic and political.
