Gabriela Mistral’s (Im)possible Return to Chile from a Neurosciences Perspective

This article analyzes the ambiguity of an imaginary homecoming in Poema de Chile and Lagar by Gabriela Mistral, written while the Chilean poet was living abroad. In these works, her longing for Chile materializes through highly detailed perceptual scenes. Hinged on a neuroscience perspective, the a...

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Main Author: Martina Bortignon
Format: Article
Language:Spanish
Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2023-01-01
Series:Literatura: Teoría, Historia, Crítica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/lthc/article/view/105275
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author Martina Bortignon
author_facet Martina Bortignon
author_sort Martina Bortignon
collection DOAJ
description This article analyzes the ambiguity of an imaginary homecoming in Poema de Chile and Lagar by Gabriela Mistral, written while the Chilean poet was living abroad. In these works, her longing for Chile materializes through highly detailed perceptual scenes. Hinged on a neuroscience perspective, the analysis applies a vision of memory as a creative rather than reproductive process, the category of imagery and fMRI observation of neural networks in memory and poetry creation. The hypothesis states that the creation of a poem, for Mistral and under certain circumstances, would translate into the activation of a multiperceptual mental imagery that allows her to travel through time and space to relive atmospheres, situations, and natural elements of her longed-for homeland. However, in Mistral’s case this imaginary journey is quite ambivalent, since it carries the intuition of its own impossibility and converges in the subject’s drive to disintegrate within the sensory elements remembered in the poems.
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publisher Universidad Nacional de Colombia
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series Literatura: Teoría, Historia, Crítica
spelling doaj-art-e2160998c94b485a9d97f098a2c7f97a2025-08-20T03:04:47ZspaUniversidad Nacional de ColombiaLiteratura: Teoría, Historia, Crítica0123-59312256-54502023-01-0125110.15446/lthc.v25n1.105275Gabriela Mistral’s (Im)possible Return to Chile from a Neurosciences PerspectiveMartina Bortignon0Adolfo Ibáñez University This article analyzes the ambiguity of an imaginary homecoming in Poema de Chile and Lagar by Gabriela Mistral, written while the Chilean poet was living abroad. In these works, her longing for Chile materializes through highly detailed perceptual scenes. Hinged on a neuroscience perspective, the analysis applies a vision of memory as a creative rather than reproductive process, the category of imagery and fMRI observation of neural networks in memory and poetry creation. The hypothesis states that the creation of a poem, for Mistral and under certain circumstances, would translate into the activation of a multiperceptual mental imagery that allows her to travel through time and space to relive atmospheres, situations, and natural elements of her longed-for homeland. However, in Mistral’s case this imaginary journey is quite ambivalent, since it carries the intuition of its own impossibility and converges in the subject’s drive to disintegrate within the sensory elements remembered in the poems. https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/lthc/article/view/105275Gabriela Mistralneurosciencememoryperceptionimageryimpotentiality
spellingShingle Martina Bortignon
Gabriela Mistral’s (Im)possible Return to Chile from a Neurosciences Perspective
Literatura: Teoría, Historia, Crítica
Gabriela Mistral
neuroscience
memory
perception
imagery
impotentiality
title Gabriela Mistral’s (Im)possible Return to Chile from a Neurosciences Perspective
title_full Gabriela Mistral’s (Im)possible Return to Chile from a Neurosciences Perspective
title_fullStr Gabriela Mistral’s (Im)possible Return to Chile from a Neurosciences Perspective
title_full_unstemmed Gabriela Mistral’s (Im)possible Return to Chile from a Neurosciences Perspective
title_short Gabriela Mistral’s (Im)possible Return to Chile from a Neurosciences Perspective
title_sort gabriela mistral s im possible return to chile from a neurosciences perspective
topic Gabriela Mistral
neuroscience
memory
perception
imagery
impotentiality
url https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/lthc/article/view/105275
work_keys_str_mv AT martinabortignon gabrielamistralsimpossiblereturntochilefromaneurosciencesperspective