The literary oeuvre of Enrique Lihn (Santiago de Chile, 1929-1988) comprises a large and eccentric body of poetic, narrative, dramatic, visual, performative and critical works. Lihn was an active member of the cultural resistance to Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship during the 1970s and 1980s. His extreme self-consciousness and grotesque sense of humour enabled him to survive and criticize from within “el horroroso Chile” [terrible Chile], a verse from his poem “Nunca salí del horroroso Chile” [“I never left terrible Chile”] from his book
A partir de Manhattan(1979),
where he expresses his inability to liberate himself from the repressive national culture that was embedded in his education, everyday speech and affective impulses. Most of his poetic works tackle the impact of…
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Citation: Ceresa, Constanza. "Enrique Lihn". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 June 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13485, accessed 16 April 2024.]
