Romanticism: Meanwhile, in Chile

When I was listening to our professor talking about the features of the Romantic period I just tried to place myself in space and time as to understand when Romanticism took place. When I noticed that the romantic period took place in the late 18^th century until approximately 1850’s, I immediately thought: What was happening in Chile in those years? Was there any Romantic movement in our country? Having this question triggered my curiosity, I started an extensive research on this matter.

We, Chilean people, tend to change conventions and behave differently according to any framework or what has been established, and this is not an exception. Of course that there are cultural implications that fully explain this matter, but it will be explained later.

As to introduce the Chilean-Romantic-way, it is strictly necessary to recall, briefly, some of the features of the English Romanticism.  Firstly, seeing nature as a source of inspiration. Nationalism is praised by the inspiration of revolutionary ideas that come from the Industrial and French Revolution. A reshaped society has emerged in terms of hierarchy and emotions. The latter is one of the aspects of great importance in romanticisim since it involves this  view of being closer to the instincts, to let your pure emotions take control over you and the understanding that everything is related to the universe. 

After having provided this scrawny overview of the Romantic period, I will present what I found. 

The Romantic period in Chile was not silent movement, actually it was the beginning of the fanatic promotion of literature as to praise national identity. The elements of the Chilean Romantic movement are not strikingly different from the ones that we know. In fact, there are some features that bear resemblance with the English version such as the increasing prevalence of emotions in poems and novels, the pursuit of a common identity throughout nationalism, the romantic hero, and the special Chilean ingredient: society.

This period (1800-1850) was particularly marked by the beginning of the process of the Chilean independence with the First National Government assembly, that is the reason why there is a permanent expression of strong admiration to the idea of nationalism in the Chilean literature. Some of the major figures of this period are José Victorino Lastarria, Alberto Blest Gana, Eduardo de la Barra Lastarria, Eusebio Lillo and Guillermo Matta.

In marked contrast to the English Romanticism, the Chilean one does refer to nature as to escape of reality.  In fact, reality and society are the main topics of this literature. This kind of writing has been called by some authors as “Romantic realism”since it contains both features of Romanticism and Realism.

The aformentioned trademarks of Romanticism are depicted in the following authors and pieces of work. For instance, José Victorino Lastarria, was born in Rancagua, he was chancellor of the exchequer of Chile and writer, and he attended the Instituto Nacional. He is considered a figure of paramount importance in the 1840’s since he was an active member of the Literary Society, a liberal advocacy group that encouraged the development of national writing and at the same time strongly rejected the influence of foreign literary models and Bulnes’ conservative government. He wrote “Don Guillermo” (1842) “Antaño y Hogaño, novelas y cuentos de la vida hispanoamericana” (1885), “El mendigo” (1843), among others. In general, he portrays the pure state of emotions to express situations such as a turmoil caused by painful unrequited love, the harsh criticism and bitter resent towards the colonial system, and the social implications as well as the dreadful and tragic fate of being a bastard who has been born out of wedlock, etc. A lot of drama.

Alberto Blest Gana is also part of this period. He was a novelist and diplomatic man who wrote “El loco Estero” (1909) “Martin Rivas” (1862) among others. In the latter, he adressed the archetype of the Romantic hero in which a character decries what is established in society, but at the same time he depicts what society was like.

Furthermore, Eduardo de la Barra Lastarria who was born in Santiago, was a journalist, writer and diplomatic man. He attended the British school in Valparaiso, the land of chorrillana, and the Instituto Nacional. His name may sound familiar to you. He was the headmaster of the Liceo Nº1 de Hombres in Valparaíso, that later in 1944 received his name. Among his great masterpieces, we can find some essays regarding the Spanish language and at the same time some poetry such as “Poesías líricas” (1866) and “Rimas chilenas” (1890),  in which he emphasized the use of the metric in his pieces of writing.

In sum, Romanticism in Chile had some traces of the English one, but with the marked Chilean essenece. it came as a surprise to me that there were lots of authors that were part of this Romantic movement whose names are usually used either to refer to a street in Santiago or a school in Valparaíso; but what really sparked my interest in exploring the lives of those poets and their pieces of writing was the fact that they all have something in common: they were active members in politics and most of them attended the Instituto Nacional in their former education.
And some questions to discuss,

Do you think that Chilean Literature praised nationalism after this period?

Do you think that contemporary Chilean Literature has some elements of nationalism? If not, what elements you can find?

References
  Barr-Melej, P. (2001) Reforming Chile: Cultural Politics, Nationalism, and the Rise of the Middle Class.  The University of North Carolina Press.

  De la Barra, E. (1866) Poesías Líricas. Imprenta de la Unión Americana. Santiago de Chile.

  Foresti, S.,  Löfquist, E.,  & Foresti, A. (1999) La narrativa chilena desde la Independencia hasta la Guerra del Pacífic. Tomo 1, 1810-1859. Editorial Andres Bello. Santiago de Chile.
  Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile. El Mendigo. Obtained on August, 28th from http://www.memoriachilena.cl/602/w3-article-67600.html