Identity and community of practice in the incident of Samuel Orellana at the Neruda Foundation poetry workshop

ABSTRACT

This study employed the narrative interview method to examine the incident of Samuel Orellana, a heteronym created in 2003 by two Literature students who invented Orellana to call into question the policies of the Pablo Neruda Foundation poetry workshop, the most prestigious workshop in Chile. More specifically, data were obtained from three sources, including the creators of Orellana (via narrative interviews), publications that mentioned the incident on Twitter in reference to the account name @Estereoscopio_ (profile of one of the creators), and poems written under the Orellana heteronym on Cyber Humanitatis (a Universidad de Chile website). After collecting data following these procedures, we conducted a qualitative case analysis using the ATLAS.ti software, where one code was used as a reference for analysis (i.e. identity): interviews, publications and poems were segmented, codes were assigned to each segment, including comments and annotations (memos). By using this method, we were able to build a relational database from which the programme generated semantic networks, which we then interpreted. This study shows an example of what happens when not all creative identities involved in a creative writing community are allowed to learn and exchange knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• Creative writing
• communities of practice
• identity
• Samuel Orellana
• workshop

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In relation, Fegan (2017) said: ‘Csikszentmihalyi argued that creative acts are linked to a sense of well-being and happiness in humans when this is combined with a sense of meaning, it becomes what he calls, “vital engagement”’ (132).

2 This is one of the three biggest football teams in Chile.

3 Mago Oli is a Chilean magician. In 1985, Oli nearly drowned on Chilean TV during a test of escapism done in the style of Harry Houdini. After being submerged for two minutes in a large water-filled container sealed with chains, several attendees and a security guard decided to remove Oli, who was then unconscious and had to recover at a hospital.

4 Tony Kamo is a Spanish psychologist who participated several times in Chilean TV shows in the 1990s, where he became famous for (supposedly) hypnotising many show guests.

5 Loica and Aragón were not aware of such a conceptualization; the purpose of this article is to analyse the incident through Wenger’s theory.

6 A person who listens to punk rock music, dresses and acts according to what these bands usually propose. This genre emerged in the late 70s and had The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned and The Ramones as great exponents.

7 The lion is the mascot of the Universidad de Chile football team.

8 Enrique Lihn Carrasco (1929–1988) was a well-known Chilean writer, literary critic, and cartoonist, best known as a poet.

9 Flora Alejandra Pizarnik (1936–1972) was an Argentine poet and translator.

10 Cutex, brand of nail care products.

11 Liliana Heker (Buenos Aires, 9 February 1943) is an well-known Argentine short-story writer, novelist and essayist with a significant track record as a creative writing workshop tutor.

12 Residencia en la Tierra is a book by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, written between 1925 and 1931 and initially published in 1933 in Madrid.

13 Raimundo Tupper was a Chilean football player who committed suicide in 1995.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Magdalena Palacios Bianchi

Magdalena Palacios Bianchi is Doctoral Candidate in Education & Society at Universidad Andres Bello, Chile. In her doctoral thesis, she explores the identities and communities of practice around creative writing workshops in Chile.