Avant-garde Dressed up as Folklore. A Reading of Emelina, a Chilean Novel by Rubén Darío (and Eduardo Poirier)

Abstract

In these pages we will approach the analysis of the first novel that bears the signature of Dario. Emelina, written in co-authorship with Eduardo Poirier in 1886 and published in 1987. It is a text that meets certain particularities. On the one hand, it is the first novel by a great artist who is still very young, although at the height of his talent. Technically, it uses resources that will be elaborated later by the avant-garde, such as appeals to the reader, the author's introduction in the text, a certain exhibition of the process of elaboration of the work, the narration through external texts such as press releases and letters read by the characters, thus distancing the verisimilitude against the truth claimed from fiction