Las cartas, el secreto y el poder en durante la reconquista de Alberto Blest Gana

Durante la Reconquista de Alberto Blest Gana puede ser leída como una novela en donde el secreto y el poder se entrelazan de manera profundamente significativa. Esta interrelación se constituye en el soporte de la narración, en cuyo desarrollo se entretejen los acontecimientos históricos, las intrigas amorosas y la descripción de costumbres sociales. En el despliegue de la novela hallamos inscritas las preocupaciones políticas y éticas de su autor.

Novela, folletines y novela indiana: la narrativa chilena del siglo XIX

Entre 1842 y 1870, la narrativa chilena presenta un paulatino proceso de desarrollo que oscila entre la novela –cuando no el cuento– y el folletín. Lastarria califica su cuento “El mendigo” (1842) como “novela histórica”. A su vez, Alberto Blest Gana luego de publicar folletines en diversos periódicos de la época toma nítida distancia de ese tipo de “novela popular (Eco, 2012) cuando en 1862 reflexiona acerca de la novela propiamente tal y al declarar –en 1864– que solo pretende ser un novelista al estilo de Balzac. No obstante, el folletín de filiación europea presentará –hacia 1870– una precisa fórmula como es la denominada “novela indiana” que critica Zorobabel Rodríguez. Por lo mismo, proponemos que en las instancias fundacionales de la narrativa nacional se anticipa la tendencia de recurrir al folletín poniendo de relieve el motivo del amor imposible que no puede superar obstáculos de diversa índole, sean ellos sentimentales, estamentales, políticos o historiográficos. Nuestra hipótesis es que en el curso de la novela chilena liberal, de sello romántico sentimental, esta estructura modélica no es ajena a la narrativa nacional, hecho que permite dar curso a la narración –entre otros– de acontecimientos propios de la conquista, la independencia y la República.

Alberto Blest Gana: Four Chronicles and a Novel

Four chronicles written by Alberto Blest Gana between April and May 1862 in the newspaper La voz de Chile, months before the publication of his novel Mariluán, shed light on the close relationship between his production as chronicler and writer. Among the various faits divers discussed in the columns, the issue of a Mapuche delegation’s arrival in Santiago to hold a parlamento with the government about border disputes arises. The oscillating attitude of the chronicler in the face of otherness and his prejudiced comments, which are at the same time full of doubts and perplexities, serve as an incentive for his composing a utopian fiction. This article aims to examine the connections in the relationship between Blest Gana chronicler and novelist to expand the reading possibilities of Mariluán.

Alberto Blest Gana and the Sensory Appeal of Wealth

This essay explores sensory stimuli in La aritmética en el amor [Arithmetic in Love/Economics of Love] (1860) as they relate to the consumer preferences (for clothing, furniture, jewellery) and purchasing practices of nineteenth-century Santiago, Chile. The novel presents detailed descriptions, for example, of fine fabrics, emphasising the sounds that the wearers of such fabric reproduce as they move about. Wealthy or not, people feel the pressure to present themselves in their best garments, but the “best noise” is made by the rich, who transmit the affect of opulence to the less fortunate. Overall, to radiate a sensory appeal, characters frequent the city of Santiago and patronise the finest clothing stores. From our very first encounter with the protagonist Fortunato Esperanzano, he is dressed accordingly, engaging with Santiago and showing in his persona that he shops only for nice clothes and the best cigars. From a Lefebvrian perspective, Fortunato represents how Chile’s modernisation transforms the capital’s “marketplace” as a social space where a new luxury economy flourishes and a traditional, rigid social order is maintained.

Alberto Blest Gana: 100 Years Later

Blest Gana at 100 is a special edition for Open Cultural Studies. Alberto Blest Gana was a Chilean writer who wore many hats during his long life, dying in 1920 at the age of 90. One of the most prominent authors of nineteenth-century Chile and Latin America, he went to military school and later held political and diplomatic appointments, all of which caused him to travel and live abroad. In fact, nel mezzo del cammin of his life, Blest Gana transferred to Europe and eventually settled in Paris, never to return to his country of birth. His fiction and non-fiction conveyed a vast array of experiences and insights from his life in Chile and overseas. To commemorate the 100 years since his death, contributors to Blest Gana at 100 approach his oeuvre from innovative and fresh scholarly angles and thus generate new perspectives on the Chilean author’s most celebrated texts, such as Martín Rivas and El ideal de un calavera. They also examine the early days of his literary career; revisit critical scholarship on Blest Gana from the past; bring less explored texts, such as Mariluán and Los Trasplantados (the latter written and published in Paris) to the foreground; research the background to his work as a columnist and discover the extent to which it informed his literary career; and examine the urban social practices in Blest Gana’s award-winning novel La aritmética en el amor. From these analyses, we hope to foster an ongoing conversation of lively and invigorating Blest Gana scholarship.

What About Realism? Alberto Blest Gana, Georg Lukács, and Their Chilean Readers

In this article, I analyse Georg Lukács’s theories of realism in relation to Alberto Blest Gana’s work. For this purpose, I explore two essays that have greatly contributed to locating the Chilean author’s novels within the realm of literary realism. The texts chosen for my study are Jaime Concha’s prologue to the Martín Rivas edition by the Ayacucho Library and Ricardo A. Latcham’s essay “Blest Gana y la novela realista” [Blest Gana and the Realist Novel]. Concha and Latcham find appropriate categories for the interpretation of Blest Gana’s work in Lukács’s essays. In their readings, they accurately apply notions such as the selective principle or the typology of characters. However, while using those insights as a shared critical platform, they arrive at different interpretations of what is meant by realism. The article elucidates the role played by Concha and Latcham in the Chilean intellectual field and shows how literary genealogies inform their critical projects.

From the Newspaper Serial to the Novel (1853–1863): Mediation of the Periodical Press in the Foundation of Alberto Blest Gana’s Narrative Project

Scholarly studies on Alberto Blest Gana have generally disregarded the author’s production prior to his narrative cycle, begun with his novel La aritmética en el amor [Arithmetic in Love] (1860), awarded first prize in a literary contest sponsored by the Universidad de Chile. Nonetheless, the canonical cycle of his first narrative period (which includes his famous Martín Rivas and El ideal de un calavera) shares with his earlier fiction the fact that the novels were originally published in the press. Indeed, with the exception of the award-winning novel and Juan de Aria – published in the Aguinaldo of the newspaper El Ferrocarril – all the author’s production from his first narrative period was published in periodical publications, decisive in consolidating his narrative project. This essay analyses the mediation of the periodical press (and its subgenres, such as the folletín [newspaper serial] and the artículo de costumbres [a literary vignette of customs]) in the foundation of Blest Gana’s narrative scheme, contemplating the diversity of his production. The main features of his project were embodied, materially speaking, in the space of the folletín. It was in this space, in short, where the author’s narrative managed to challenge an extended reading public, necessary for the constitution of a national literature.