The Poetry of Dissidence in the Chilean Dictatorship: Raúl Zurita and Carmen Berenguer

Abstract

The article examines the possibilities of poetic discourse to resignify a historical fact, in this case, the Chilean military dictatorship (1973-1990). Our main objective is to analyze two books written during the Pinochet government, Canto a su amor desaparecido by Raúl Zurita and Huellas de Siglo by Carmen Berenguer, in order to show that the poetic discourse served as a space of resistance and criticism against the military regime. To fulfill this purpose, we review in a general way the different poetic dictions that existed in the 1980s, while reviewing the complex social context faced by the artists of the time. Subsequently, and based on sources of the time and specialized literature, we delve into the literary strategies that each of the works follows to name the horror lived during the dictatorship.