The Decolonial Poetics of Jaime Luis Huenún

Abstract

The social and literary evolution of contemporary Chile is characterized by the affirmation of new voices from indigenous peoples. This article aims to show how one of these voices, the mestizo poet of Mapuche-Huilliche origin Jaime Luis Huenún, articulates a poetic project of great originality and critical significance. In the collection Reducciones (Reservations), the documentary poetry invites the reader to engage with the decolonization of knowledge, while Fanon city meu ( fanon city meu) focuses on the ravages of colonization on identity. The latter is seen as a descent into hell. The infernal motif is made clearer by the polemical discussion Fanon has with Sartre on the latter's text Black Orpheus. This implicit dialogue provides the key to Huenun's decolonial poetics and allows us to underline the aporia inherent in the quest for identity and its inextricable link with betrayal.