La oscura vida radiante otra vez

Abstract

In this article I propose a reading of La oscura vida radiante, the last novel by Manuel Rojas, that considers and combines the historical series (Chile transitioning from its first to its second modernity) with the biographical series (Aniceto Hevia / Manuel Rojas transitioning from youth to maturity). In the foreground, the reader of the novel encounters a young Hevia / Rojas who, together with his fellow anarchists, drifts around without losing his integrity and lucidity, while at the same time developing as a citizen, poet and Chilean writer. Meanwhile, behind the story, emerges the narration in the voice of old Hevia / Rojas, who remembers it and tells it fifty years after with a mixture of nostalgia, disappointment and sarcasm.