Memory Woven by a Subaltern Subject in Dawson and Los pájaros de post-guerra by Aristóteles España

Abstract

The study reviews two poetry collections by Aristóteles España (1955-2011), Dawson (1984) and Los pájaros de post-guerra (1994), the former written during the dictatorship in a detention and torture camp, the latter under apparent freedom in the context of transition to democracy. From the concepts of subaltern subject and memory, this article contemplates the construction of the poetic subject in both lyrical discourses, which allows to situate the “poet” subject and his enunciation in front of two different experiences that are part of recent Chilean history. In Dawson, the subaltern subject describes the repression suffered in an attempt to overcome the isolation and pain, while in Los pájaros de post-guerra, the surviving subject exposes his own fragmentation.