The poetic reverie of Valparaíso from the study of the “semantic obliquity” in the liryc of Ximena Rivera

Abstract

Considering Adolfo de Nordenflycht's proposals on local literature as differentiated from national literature, the study proposes an approach to the “differential” imaginary of the city-port of Valparaíso, concretized in the lyric of Ximena Rivera Órdenes (Viña del Mar, 1959—Valparaíso, 2013). In the first place, the "localized subaltern space" is considered as a dispute political space, and the catastrophic consequences of the military dictatorship in the social, cultural, and literary terms are addressed. Second, the concept of "poetic reverie" as proposed by Gaston Bachelard is addressed and discussed, to access the author's poetics and her selfrepresentation in the lyrical discourse. Finally, her lyrical work is approached while taking into account the materiality of Spinozist affections, the temper of mind, and the principle of "semantic obliqueness" of the text as proposed by Michael Riffaterre's critical system (1983), revealing that Ximena Rivera's poetry evokes a representation that is singular and different from that of the Port of Valparaíso, thus exerting resistance against the homogenization of the “abstract space”.