Postmodern traces in La ciudad anterior by Gonzalo Contreras

Abstract

This article looks into the epoch marks in the novel La ciudad anterior (1991), by Gonzalo Contreras. The work —using a conventional narrative structure— shows the changes in the subjectivities occurred in Chilean society after the forced implementation of the neoliberal model. This is expressed in the radical signs that enroll its characters in postmodern logics, outlining individualism, psychologism, perspectivism, personalization process, emergence of an abject subject, lack of historical consciousness, among others. Therefore, the novel demonstrates an epochal record that prefigures the social, political and cultural context that will predominate in the democratical transition that is beginning at that time.