“Una emplumada” y El barco de ébano: mujeres esclavizadas en la ficción histórica chilena

Abstract

El presente artículo analiza las narraciones chilenas de ficción histórica “Una emplumada” (1874) y El barco de ébano (2008), en un ejercicio comparativo de lectura a contrapunto, sociocrítica y decolonial. Buscando generar un aporte a estas líneas de análisis y al desarrollo de la crítica literaria sobre temas afrodescendientes en Chile, se propone que, a pesar de su lejanía temporal de publicación, ambos relatos comparten el instante histórico en el cual sitúan la trama y el personaje protagónico, a saber, Chile en pleno proceso independentista/abolicionista y la representación de mujeres esclavizadas de origen africano, respectivamente. Proponemos que la condición de esclavizadas y la caracterización en torno a la belleza de estas mujeres surgen como puntos de partida para reflexionar sobre los estereotipos hegemónicos y la dificultad, hasta el siglo XXI, de romper con las estructuras impuestas por el eurocentrismo.

This article analyses Chilean historical fiction “Una emplumada” (1874) and El barco de ébano (2008) in a comparative exercise of contrapuntal, socio-critical and decolonial reading. Seeking to generate a contribution to these lines of analysis and to the development of literary criticism on Afro-descendant issues in Chile, it is proposed that, despite their temporal distance from publication, both stories share the historical moment in which they place the plot and the character protagonist, namely, Chile in the middle of the independence / abolitionist process and the representation of enslaved women of African origin, respectively. We propose that the enslaved condition and the characterization around the beauty of these women emerge as starting points to reflect on the hegemonic stereotypes and the difficulty of breaking with the  structures imposed by Eurocentrism until the 21st century. This article analyses Chilean historical fiction “Una emplumada” (1874) and El barco de ébano (2008) in a comparative exercise of contrapuntal, socio-critical and decolonial reading. Seeking to generate a contribution to these lines of analysis and to the development of literary criticism on Afro-descendant issues in Chile, it is proposed that, despite their temporal distance from publication, both stories share the historical moment in which they place the plot and the character protagonist, namely, Chile in the middle of the independence / abolitionist process and the representation of enslaved women of African origin, respectively. We propose that the enslaved condition and the characterization around the beauty of these women emerge as starting points to reflect on the hegemonic stereotypes and the difficulty of breaking with the structures imposed by Eurocentrism until the 21st century.