Escribir, surcar, delirar Manuel Aburto Panguilef o la desposesión por la escritura

Abstract

Based on a reading and an analysis of the work of Mapuche leader Manuel Aburto Panguilef, the author seeks to reflect on the relationship between writing and raving, through the critical perspective that these two elements open up vis-à-vis a series of classic sociological and anthropological categories. Thus the notion of traditionalism that has been used to classify Manuel Aburto is debated, contrasting it with the raving productivity of prophetic possession. The relationship between his unique writing practice (graphomania) and a history of writing in Mapuche society is examined, identifying its correlations with the different historical and political contexts in which it has operated, as well as a certain scientific and political notion of the body channeled by the concept of "race." Lastly, the teratological theories of the late nineteenth century are evoked to illustrate the possibility of explaining those states in which historical subjects are in a situation of excess, raving, or monstrous rest with respect to hegemonic classification categories and strategies