Civilizing burden and visions of barbarism: Mariluán, by Alberto Blest Gana, in its time

Abstract

Published in 1862, Mariluán, by Alberto Blest Gana, has been arousing the interest of literary criticism since the study of John Ballard, in which he considered it as a “forgotten novel” in the trajectory of the prolific Chilean narrator. Our article seeks to insert itself into the debate about the book by investigating the meanings of the novel in two comparative movements: on the one hand, we consider the relationship between the novel and the polemics about the military campaigns in the Araucania region, in southern Chile; on the other hand, we aim to bring the text of novels published at the same period that deal with the indigenous issue and were better received in their respective countries. The movement seeks to re-evaluate the singular treatment Blest Gana gives to the complex discussions about indigenous assimilation to Creole society, without adhering to the terms in which the debate was installed at the moment he wrote the novel, which had as a subtitle “crónica contemporánea”.