In this essay, Eugenia Brito discusses three works by the writer, poet, and artist Raúl Zurita: Purgatorio (Purgatory), Áreas verdes (Green Areas), and Anteparaíso (Anteparadise). Through these works, the author created an impact in the field of Chilean literature during the dictatorial regime. Brito claims that all three works have something in common, which is a symbolic presence of women and femininity in general, with references to madness and the mother figure in particular. This is how she describes Purgatorio, a foundational collection of poems that touches on pairs of opposites such as center–periphery, normality–madness, and masculine–feminine, among others. In discussing Áreas verdes, Brito alludes to the idea of “frontier” women to establish a contrast between creation and the oppressiveness of the dictatorship. Finally, she describes Anteparaíso as a book based on Christian values that suggests that the country can find redemption through its children’s sacrifices.   

“Un continente semiotizado en femenino: la escritura de Raúl Zurita” (A Continent Steeped in Feminine Semiotics: The Writings of Raúl Zurita) is a chapter in Campos minados (literatura post-golpe en Chile) (Minefields [Post-Coup Literature in Chile]) (1990), the book by the poet and professor Eugenia Brito (b. 1950). She underscores the importance of the semiotic references in the text, whose mobile signs are inspired by Roland Barthes’s theoretical concept of l’écriture (Le degré zéro de l'écriture, 1953; Writing Degree Zero, 1967). In her book, Brito compiles and critically reviews works by Chilean writers that were produced during the decade following the coup d’état, including Zurita, Juan Luis Martínez, Diego Maquieira, Diamela Eltit, Gonzalo Muñoz, Antonio Gil, Carla Grandi, Carmen Berenguer, and Soledad Fariña. The book’s basic premise is that this generation’s “writing” is characterized by its critical and reflexive nature and its “resistance” to the oppressive dictatorial circumstances in which its members were writing.

In this chapter, Brito refers to three important works by the Chilean poet Raúl Zurita (b. 1950): Purgatorio (Purgatory), Áreas verdes (Green Areas), and Anteparaíso (Anteparadise). These three books earned him the distinction of being considered one of the most significant Chilean writers of his generation. He received the Premio Nacional de Literatura in 2000 and the Premio Iberoamericano de Poesía Pablo Neruda in 2016. He also achieved a measure of fame as a result of his involvement in the art action group known as Colectivo Acciones de Arte. The members of CADA came from many disciplines; among them were the writers Diamela Eltit and Raúl Zurita, the artist Lotty Rosenfeld, the sociologist Fernando Balcells, and the artist Juan Castillo. From 1979 to 1985, the group produced a number of art actions aimed at specific communities as well as the broader population, condemning widespread social and political conditions in Chile that the government’s official propaganda failed to mention. For more information about Raúl Zurita, see the following texts in the ICAA digital archive: by Robert Dye, “Grafitis en el cielo” (doc. no. 731793); by Raúl Zurita, “Un matrimonio en el campo” (doc. no. 752503) and by Rodrigo Cánovas, “Zurita Chilensis: nuestro dolor, nuestra esperanza” (doc. no. 752642).