Memorias de un perro escritas por su propia pata (1893) by Juan Rafael Allende: picaresque novel and popular intellectuality in nineteenth-century Chilean literature

Memorias de un perro escritas por su propia pata (literally, “memories of a dog written by its own paw”) is a Chilean novel published in 1893 by Juan Rafael Allende, clearly influenced by the Spanish picaresque novel. Given the little attention the novel has aroused among critics (despite the relevance of its author to his cultural context) and the consequent general ignorance that exists about it, I propound a global revision on the work, focusing specially on its integration within the Latin American nineteenth-century literary field. First, I will discuss the origins of this literary field, positioning works such as this one in a late development stage, clearly distinguishable for the relevance of professional intellectuals as cultural agents. With this in mind, the discussion will be transferred to the operation of the picaresque model in Latin America and Chile, with special emphasis on the dynamics of transculturation and selectivity recognizable in the Latin American picaresque corpus, remarking the genre’s flexibility when adapting to different enunciative contexts and taking social criticism to the field of literature. Finally, I will comment some aspects of the novel, showing how picaresque traits are suited into a popular critic perspective on the end-of-century Chilean society.