Imaginary of Valparaiso in the Mid Twentieth Century in Juan Uribe’s Novel Sábadomingo and in the Memories of Alfredo González, De carne y sueño

Abstract

The present work reviews the way in which Juan Uribe’s novel Sabadomingo and the memoirs De carne y sueño by Alfredo González present an imaginary of decadence of Valparaíso, assumed from the bohemian paratopia. This imaginary is understood as a subversion against a transplanted modernity, which correspond to the promethean imaginary of philanthropists and anarchists of the fi rst decades of the twentieth century. The representation of Valparaíso that both Uribe and González construe reveals, in a mocking and provocative way, the decline of the local promethean identity. Also the authors convey that decadence is not another imaginary but a refi nement of the one given which favors subversion.