Baldomero Lillo and the Chilean society of the 1900s

Pineda, Ximena Luz (1983) Baldomero Lillo and the Chilean society of the 1900s. MLitt(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Although not renowned for a prolific literary career, Baldomero Lillo is a Chilean short story writer whose work has been the subject of passionate controversy. Such a controversy, however, has not been helpful in providing a true assessment of Lillo's role within Latin American literature but, on the contrary, it has greatly obscured the real issues that lay behind a writer and his work during the crucial period of transition at the turn of the nineteenth century in Chile. This study focuses upon the literary analysis of Lillo's work against two interrelated historical backgrounds. The first relates to the way in which contemporary tendencies such as Realism, Naturalism and Modernismo influenced Lillo's short stories, and the second examines the impact of Lillo's own society upon his work. Chapter I examines the way in which Realism, Naturalism and Modernismo developed in Latin America permeating the literary production of Chilean writers in whose number Lillo was also counted. The second chapter provides a biographical sketch of the man and gives a general overview of his short stories. It represents an attempt to classify Lillo's 47 stories into four thematic categories in order to prepare the groundwork for the following chapter in which the stories are analysed according to their structure. This third chapter discusses in a more detailed way those literary tendencies examined in the first chapter and their specific impact on Lillo's work. Our research shows that although these tendencies had some bearing upon Lillo's work, there was another perhaps stronger Influence that emerged from the rich popular culture of Chile's mines, farms and emergent cities, a reality of which Lillo had first hand experience. Chapter four represents an innovative attempt in the analysis of Lillo's work. His short stories are studied against the background of the social and economic changes taking place in Chile during Lillo's times. Examined in its historical context, Lillo's work represents a portrayal of social classes in acute conflict, the transition of a traditional society towards a complex capitalist structure with the natural emergence of social protest. The present study provides also three appendices which are considered necessary to facilitate further research on Lillo's short stories, a long neglected topic in the literary history of both Chilean and Latin American literature. Appendix I provides a complete list of Lillo's works arranged in chronological sequence; Appendix II gives a glossary of popular terms found in the short stories studied and Appendix III is a set of photographs of the Lota coal mines at the turn of the century, so close to the life and work of Baldomero Lillo.

• Item Type: Thesis (MLitt(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Additional Information: Adviser: Michael Gonzalez
• Keywords: Latin American literature
• Date of Award: 1983
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1983-72034
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 17 May 2019 13:18
• Last Modified: 17 May 2019 13:18
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/72034