Youth Identities in Mala Onda by Alberto Fuguet: The Colonization of Political Imaginary by Consumption. Chile, 1980-1990

Abstract

This article approaches the configuration of youth identities in the novel Mala Onda by Alberto Fuguet taking into account ideas about consumption, advertising and mass media. In the context of the deep social changes introduced by the dictatorship in the 80s, we try to demonstrate that the establishment of a consumer society affected, decisively, the experiences and sociability of young Chileans in the upper class. From this perspective, we will focus on the representation of a media-sensitive youth, centered in images of satisfaction, progress and prosperity that the military regime sought to instill. In contrast tp that, we will be able to perceive clearly the silencing of other spaces and experiences that shaped the identity of young people who resisted, on several fronts, the introduction of the neoliberal model.