Cartas pehuenches by Juan Egaña: between fiction and non-fiction

Abstract

Cartas pehuenches, written by Chilean Juan Egaña (1768-1836), was published as a newspaper in 1819. Critics have defined the work either as a piece directed toward political and social reform, or as a travel narrative, and, most recently, as the work which best represents the beginnings of modern Chilean narrative. This essay analizes the strategies employed by the author to develop a fictional universe, within the fictional letters themselves, a universe which gradually takes over the letters that contain it. A detailed examination of the framed narratives, the editor's notes, and the epigraphs allows for a reading of Cartas pehuenches as a work in which fiction and non-fiction are intertwined for the purpose of legitimizing a discursive space.