Dressing Asian to Look European: Chilean Writers Facing World Literature

The article reviews two episodes from the Chilean literary circuit of the early twentieth century: the 1921 publication of the book of poems Fragments by the Afghan poet Karez-i-Roshan and the accusation against Pablo Neruda of plagiarism in 1934. Both events describe an unusual situation: twice and in different ways, a Chilean poet was transfigured into an Asian poet. The proposed analysis of these events allows us to assess two levels at which the cultural and literary exchanges between Chile and Asia were hindered by European mediation: first, in the understanding of a system of production and dissemination of works, and second, in local writers’ sense of belonging to a Western tradition.