The Blue Horse of Poetry. Decolonial Poetics, Transsecular Reading, and Ecocritical Affinities in Elicura Chihuailaf

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article proposes a transsecular reading of the Mapuche poet Elicura Chihuailaf by exploring the transversal elements in his writings and examining how poetics, spirituality, and conceptions of nature are negotiated. To this end, the article focusses on the intercultural dialogue between Mapuche and Western cultures and the hybrid, transcultural moments that this dialogue entails; the essential interconnectedness of spiritual and poetic speech; and the simultaneity of tradition and modernity in contemporary Mapuche literature. The article furthermore argues that there are numerous intersections and points of contact between Mapuche philosophy and current eco-critical and neo-materialist theory. While this does not mean equating them or incorporating the former into the latter, the aim here rather is to draw attention to the significant contribution of Indigenous perspectives to current debates in cultural studies and social sciences about other, sustainable forms of multispecies existence in view of the current global socioecological crisis.