Presences and Absences: Comparative Analysis of Three Narratives about the Independence in the Writing of V. F. López, Rosario Orrego and Iris (Chile, 1845-1930)

Abstract

The article aims to compare three didactic-doctrinal narratives, written by a male author and two female authors (Vicente Fidel López, Rosario Orrego and Iris), which have in common their reference to the time of the Chilean Revolution of Independence (1810-1818). We will take certain ideas from Sociocriticism to establish the interdiscursive relationship between the works, mainly using the concept of ideoseme, that is part of this methodological proposal. Through the review of the narrated events and the characters that are mentioned, described or omitted, we will reflect on the social characterization (race, class, sex) of those who participate in these narratives, in order to show how said formative moment Chilean identity was interpreted and represented in subsequent decades, establishing continuities and differences between these stories. We will observe that there is a certain continuity between these three stories, where López's proposal, the idea of ​​the criollo that is established as the possible option for a revolutionary and civilizing transformation, is continued in certain aspects by Orrego and Iris, although it also concludes that these female authors, despite their differences, insert the perspective from the woman’s agency as well, absent in López.