Abstract

GAITAN BAYONA, Jorge Ladino. Laughter in the desert: el arte de la resurrección y sermones y prédicas del Cristo de Elqui [The Art of Resurrection and Sermons and Preaching of the Christ of Elqui]. La Palabra [online]. 2015, n.27, pp.159-170. ISSN 0121-8530.

This article analyzes the carnivalesque aesthetic of the novel El arte de la resurrección [The Art of the Resurrection] (2010) by Hernán Rivera Letelier, and the poetry books Sermones y prédicas del Cristo de Elqui [Sermons and Preaching of the Christ of Elqui] (1977) and Nuevos Sermones y prédicas del Cristo de Elqui [New Sermons and Preaching of the Christ of Elqui] (1979) by Nicanor Parra. These books are based on a real and eccentric preacher of the history of Chile: Domingo Zárate Vega, better known as "The Christ of Elqui". The article uses the concepts of Mijail Bajtín to explore laughter and madness as resources that generate a critical view of the misery of the nitrate miners in the Chilean desert, the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and the killing of the Saint Mary Iquique School (21 December 1907).

Keywords : Christ of Elqui; antipoetry; Chilean narrative; carnival; history.

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