The masked invention of La mala memoria by Marco Antonio de la Parra

Abstract

Chile is a country of mask, a space of madness. A country capable of using those masks to save its intrinsic identity that doesn't appear in the daylight, in its dominating and consumer facet. It lies in its gloomy, creative, protean and sometimes repulsive face. First of all, before contemplate the masked invention problematic, we're going to define the narrative structure, the writing projection according to Hayden White and the allegories we can find in this essay. In the second place, we'll try to isolate the mask figure in several Chilean's essays and compare them with this one. We'll establish that De La Parra's essay performs a preponderant significance in the nation's symbolic construction. Thus, through an analysis considering the multiples manifestations of disguise, we'll stop in one of its exacerbation pointing out the nation as an allegory of a psychiatric hospital. We'll see how the national imaginary gives the mask implements.