Fantastic fiction and allegorical trance in Pablo Neruda and Nicanor Parra.

Towards a reading of two horror poems (in the desert of the real)

Abstract

Pablo Neruda and Nicanor Parra are two of the most important and representative Chilean poets of the 20th century, their works are deeply rooted in the cultural evolution of the country. At different times in their poetic production, the poets focus their attention on specific and problematic cultural imaginaries of Chilean identity and culture. For example, in the poem “Margarita Naranjo” (Neruda, Canto general, 1950) and in the poem “La venganza del minero” (Parra, Hojas de Parra, 1985) the poets textualized specific dimensions of the cultural imaginary of the north of Chile, specifically with regard to the desert and the figure of the miner, treating them in a critical and fantastic. Accordingly, the poets make use of fictionalization and allegory as resources to textualize the fantastic and horror in their poems. This article tries to read reflexively and creatively the poetic productions from the understanding of the fantastic fiction and the allegorical trance proposition to show the horror, the criticism of impunity and the reading disturbance; or, of horror poems. Finally, towards the end of the text, the possibility of a socialist fantastit (Neruda) and a capitalist fantastic (Parra) is outlined according to a relationship with socialist realism (Lukács) and capitalist realism (Fisher), respectively.