The Strait of Magellan and “the famous Antarctic Region”: openings, closings and displacements in la antártica y otros mitos by Miguel Serrano
The first references in literature to the Magellan territory as a place of passage, and later as a failed colony, are based on a series of openings, closings, displacements, and blockages. Those aspects are also associated with enormous natural forces, a gigantic indigenous world, and a cult which e...
| Published in: | Anales de Literatura Chilena |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | Spanish |
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Centro de Estudios de Literatura Chilena de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (CELICH)
2020
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| Online Access: | https://ojs.uc.cl/index.php/alch/article/view/33655 https://doi.org/10.7764/ANALESLITCHI.33.06 |
| Summary: | The first references in literature to the Magellan territory as a place of passage, and later as a failed colony, are based on a series of openings, closings, displacements, and blockages. Those aspects are also associated with enormous natural forces, a gigantic indigenous world, and a cult which eventually gives full control of the territory to the Devil. As a result, a series of representations are produced to explain the Spaniard’s failure in the territory at the time which are functional to the political project of the Spanish Empire. I argue that La Antártica y otros mitos (1948) by Miguel Serrano alludes to such representations of the Southern imaginary and displaces them towards the White Continent, hence finding the nexus between Chile and Antarctica in Magallanes: a place of passage in the national project. Furthermore, myths and legends of the Selk’nam people, territory and Nazism will articulate the cause of the nationalization of Antarctica that stems from a patriotic duty, reestablishing, elevating, and projecting the Chilean being and the West. Las irrupciones inaugurales de Magallanes en la literatura como lugar de paso, y luego de colonización fallida, se articulan sobre la base de una serie de aperturas, cierres, desplazamientos y bloqueos que, asociados a fuerzas naturales descomunales, un mundo indígena giganteo y un culto que termina entregando el control exclusivo del lugar al demonio, terminan produciendo una serie de representaciones funcionales al proyecto político del imperio español del momento, justificando su fracaso en el territorio. Sostengo que La Antártica y otros mitos (1948) de Miguel Serrano, vuelve sobre dichas representaciones del imaginario austral, esta vez desplazadas hacia el Continente Blanco, para hallar en un Magallanes —relegado nuevamente a lugar de paso ahora en el proyecto nacional—, el nexo entre Chile y la Antártica: mitos y leyendas del pueblo selk’nam, territorio y nazismo, articularán la causa de la nacionalización de los hielos como un deber patriótico, ... |
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