Resisting alienation: the literary work of Enrique Lihn

298 Pages·2007·24.692 MB·English

by  Lihn, Enrique;Travis, Christopher Michael

Resisting Alienation
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Resisting Alienation
The Literary Work of Enrique Lihn
Christopher M. Travis
Lewisburg
BucknellUniversityPress
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AssociatedUniversityPresses
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Cranbury,NJ08512
ThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstherequirementsoftheAmerican
NationalStandardforPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials
Z39.48-1984.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Travis,Christopher,1971–
Resistingalienation:theliteraryworkofEnriqueLihn/ChristopherTravis.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13:978-0-8387-5675-1(alk.paper)
ISBN-10:0-8387-5675-1(alk.paper)
1.Lihn,Enrique—Criticismandinterpretation. I.Title.
PQ8097.L47Z88 2007
861(cid:2).64—dc22 2006037015
printedinthe unitedstatesofamerica
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Contents
Acknowledgments 6
Introduction 9
1. QuestioningLiterary Expression:Dialectical Engagement
inLihn’s EarlyWriting 26
2. Lihn’s ReturntoAmerica: ReflectionsinForm 89
BeyondSeptember11, 1973:ArtAfter‘Auschwitz’’ 133
3. GlobalObservationsofAlienation withLocal
Implications 144
4. BeyondPoetry: InventingDystopia 164
5. Spectacles, Happenings,andApparitions:ThePresenceof
theCarnivalesqueinLihn 211
Conclusion:TheDiaryofDyingandthePoetryofLife 235
Notes 250
WorksCited 282
Index 289
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Acknowledgments
I
’D LIKE TO EXPRESS SINCERE GRATITUDE TO MEMBERS OF MY
dissertation committee at the University of Texas including directors
Naomi Lindstrom and Jose´ Cerna-Baza´n, to the many friends and
colleagues, writers, critics, and professors, in Chile and the United
States,whomadevaluablecontributionstothisbook,andtothededi-
catededitorsofBucknellUniversity PressandAssociatedUniversity
Presses. The book has benefited greatly from the high quality of the
growing bibliography on Lihn and from the personal readings, reac-
tions,andwritingsinresponsetoLihnandhisworkbyLihn’sfamily
andfriends,andmyownstudentsatElmhurstCollege.Thankyouto
all those interested in the work of this provocative artist who keep
his work alive through creative and critical interpretation. Generous
fundingforessentialstagesoftheprocesshasbeenprovidedthrough
Elmhurst’sFacultyDevelopmentGrantprogram.Idedicatethebook
to my wife Tavia and family, and to the writers of Chile, who con-
tinuetoshowthatdespue´sde todo,siempre hayarte.
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Resisting Alienation
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Introduction
laverdadesrevolucionaria,comoloestambie´nlabu´squedadela
misma.
[Thetruthisrevolutionary,asisalsothesearchforit]
—EnriqueLihn
‘‘C
HILE:TIERRADELOSPOETAS.’’PEOPLEOFTENSPEAKOFCHILEAS
the‘‘landofpoets’’citingNobelPrizewinnersPabloNerudaandGa-
briela Mistral, the active writers’ guilds, foundations, societies, pub-
lishers, and journals. Within Chile, poets, readers, critics, professors,
andpublishersarespeakingofEnriqueLihn(1929–88).WhowasEn-
rique Lihn? How is it possible that a writer whose life and work are
sofrequentlycitedbydevotedLatinAmericanpoetscanstillberela-
tively unknown to North American readers? When Chilean writers
honor Pablo Neruda, but prefer to engage critically and creatively
with Lihn in their own writing, pay homage to Gabriela Mistral, but
aspiretoimbuetheirownspeechandversewiththewittyconscience
and sardonic tones most associated with Lihn, we must investigate
further.WhenawinneroftheprestigiousPremioCasadelasAme´ri-
cas (1966), or fellowships from UNESCO and the Guggenheim
Foundation, does not appear on the reading lists of leading North
AmericanandEuropeandoctoralprograms,andyetisdeemedbyNi-
canor Parra—himself candidate on many occasions for the Nobel
Prize in Literature—as one of Latin America’s greatest poets, many
questions arise. Could it be that Lihn’s premature death of lung can-
cer temporarily silenced his unique voice and few were prepared to
continue his hard line of critical creativity? Does his poetry take the
reader to a level of discomfort, with its challenging philosophical
questions, sense of modern foreboding, and cynicism, which we are
attimesreluctanttoconfront?Or,wemustwonder,didthepersonal-
ity of a man more interested in honest friendships and courageous
writingthansocialgracesandrhetoricsomehowalienatetheacademic
community? One thing is clear: Lihn was supremely devoted to his
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10 RESISTING ALIENATION
work,and thesincerityoftheidealsit embodied.Whilethechalleng-
ing nature of his writing or the visceral struggle that is played out in
the language of his poetry may have limited his commercial success,
he has been highly venerated by the writers of his time and today’s
writers.Heservesasinspirationandvalidation,forwriters,thattheir
insecurities, disillusion, and fear are real and acceptable; that writing
is not about finding the perfect form of expression, but about the
struggle,theprocess.Asamodel,butalsothroughpraiseandpointed
critique, Lihn inspired followers to confront reality, but also to en-
gagewiththestruggleofpoetryitself.1Poetryisreality.
I ‘‘discovered’’ Lihn in the rare books section of the Benson Latin
American Collection at the University of Texas, when I came upon
therecordingofatalkhegaveinAustinasaVisitingProfessor,1985.
Speaking to those who had worked with Lihn, I learned that he
changed the lives of many, inspired others, and could also, it turned
out,bea ratherunaccommodatingofficemate.Onthetape,hisvoice
rises and falls with the humble yet powerful intonations of a man
committedtoliterature,withnointerestinthelyricalgamesandrhe-
torical falsity of what we oftenencounter at public readings. Unwill-
ing to sell himself to a hungry public as a practitioner of Magical
Realism or as political refugee, and certainly not as the heir apparent
to his countryman Pablo Neruda, Lihn challenged the audience with
complex negativity, beauty hidden within the trappings of parody,
truthandtranscendenceacknowledgedfortheirexistenceonlyasun-
attainable.Afterreadinganumberofpoemsandwaitingpatientlyfor
the English translations, the man who spoke surprisingly little En-
glish (considering the years spent in such places as New York and
Texas) explained that there would be no translation provided for the
remaining poems. Those who knew or have studied Lihn understand
thatwhatmayhavebeenreceivedatthetimeasinsensitivitywasmore
a reflection of his profound understanding of the effects of language
on ideology, of imperialistic dominance of English over Spanish and
other languages, of art too removed from its sociohistorical context,
of the dangers of trying to fit Latin American writers into a canon
drivenanddesignedbyNorthAmericanscholars,oftheequallydan-
gerous practice of applying the paradigms of Western literary criti-
cism to poetry from Latin America. In truth, Lihn’s work is quite
comparable in certain regards to the poetry of William Carlos Wil-
liams (1883–1963), Robert Lowell (1917–77), Ezra Pound (1885–
1972), and some of the beat writers such as Allen Ginsberg
(1926–97).2 It may show signs of antipoetry, as comparable first to
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