Scenes of Cervantes in Chile: the Case of «Memorias de un perro escritas por su propia pata» by Juan Rafael Allende

Abstract

It is possible to recognize the influence of Cervantes in Spanish America from the moment its works arrived to our continent in the XVII century. The Chilean literature is not out of that process: in the literary field one of the highlights is the writer Juan Rafael Allende, from mid XIX Century, who’s novel Memorias de un perro escritas por su propia pata (1893) shows a clear inspiration on one of the Exemplary novels titled Coloquio de los perros. Rafael Allende’s work, narrated according to the XVII century picaresque novel principles, tells about the life’s ups and downs of a dog named Rompecadenas, who constantly changes owners and get a good number of experiences that allow it to make its performance as a pícaro even better and, by the way, to display a series of pictures of Chilean social reality.