Torres, Luis A.Schurch, Tamara2013-10-022013-11-122013-10-022013http://hdl.handle.net/11023/1100The objective of the present thesis on Lluvia en el desierto / Rain in the Desert (1999) by the Chilean-American poet Marjorie Agosín is to explore the problem of mourning, memory and identity in the context of the dictatorship and post dictatorship in Chile through the poetics of the desert. In this first in-depth analysis ever done on this collection of poems, I consider how Agosín’s use of prosopopeia of the desert creates the spatial and temporal flexibility through which we can access poetic knowledge. This knowledge traverses social, cultural, psychological, spiritual and historical aspects. This thesis seeks to elucidate and include Agosín’s Lluvia en el desierto in the framework of Chilean artistic tradition of the Desert of Atacama. According to this conceptualization, diverse artists have employed the image of the desert as a form of resistance to forgetting injustice and political violence, both before the military coup of 1973, such as in the verses of Pablo Neruda, Andrés Sabella and Gabriela Mistral, and after, in Patricio Guzmán’s documentary film Nostalgia de la luz (2010) as well as Ariel Dorfman’s book Memorias del desierto (2004). This investigation also proposes to illuminate inter-textual connections in Agosín’s poems that go beyond the desert, to works such as the Chilean Arpilleras, and beyond the Chilean context, to the mystical poetry of san Juan de la Cruz. Through the analysis of Agosín’s poems in conjunction with other works, I conclude that the artistic expression of mourning represents an ethical act that struggles to restore a sense of dignity and place to victims of violence, such as the “disappeared” of the Pinochet dictatorship, their family members and other survivors. In addition to the identification of pain, suffering and ineffable loss in the context of military violence, the artistic expression of mourning exemplified through the poetics of the desert, reveals a search for peace and healing where the evocation and preservation of silenced memories in the poetic word symbolizes not only a place to give homage, but also to celebrate life and hope.spaUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.PhilosophyLatin American Chile Memory Dictatorship Landscapedoctoral thesis10.11575/PRISM/25853