Telluric Movements in 20th Century Chilean Poetry

Abstract

Chile has always been a country ravaged by natural catastrophes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Asking how 20th Century poets perceive these events by giving life to their works and narrating earthly disaster is the question central to this article. Accounting for the singular ways whereby poetry illuminates social and cultural imaginaries, this work synthesizes four poetic entries into the seismic universe of Chile: a) the earthquake as a hinge between life and death; b) the telluric condition as a way of inhabiting perpetual movement; c) material traces of earthquakes as vivid expressions of catastrophe; and d) tremors as a way of representing social inequality. Poetic verse is concluded as announcing the loss of legitimacy of the unique and hegemonic view of the national imaginary; and returning trust to the first person who narrates the movement of a society and an injured identity.