Guest of the ilb 2005
Arturo Fontaine T. (Talavera) was born in 1952 in Santiago de Chile. He studied Philosophy at Columbia University and at the Universidad de Chile. Fontaine is regarded as a significant representative of the »Nueva Narrativa Chilena«, which evolved from the heritage of the magic realism of the storytellers known as »Generación del Boom«. He made his debut with the volumes of poetry »Nueva York« (1976; t: New York) and »Poemas hablados« (1989; t: Spoken Poems). His first novel »Oír su voz« (1992; t: Hear Your Voice) was not only met with critical acclaim but also remained in the Latin American bestsellers chart for forty six weeks. In the tradition of the great novels of the Nineteenth Century, he sketches a profound and critical portrait of Chilean society. With the economical reorganisation of Chile under Pinochet as a backcloth, he tells of a scheming group of business people, and of passionate love. His fine feeling for the nuances of language allows Fontaine to trace the complex structure of society and let its many voices speak. »Power is always contained in language. There is no human power which isn’t clothed in language. In ›Oír su voz‹ a multitude of jargon and language is collected, and through their sequence next to one another relativised, reciprocally destabilised, and revealed to be what they really are: languages and interpretations. There is no consistent tone, ... but an interlacing of different tones and inconsistent linguistic material.«
Fontaine’s biggest interest is in the interdependancy which exists between the order of society and the emotional life of the individual. His second epic »Cuando éramos inmortales« (1998; t: When We Were Immortal) is an autobiographically inspired novel about growing up. He traces the process of modernisation in Chile during the sixties and seventies in the light of its social and ideological struggles, using a family of landowners as an example. Emilio, alluding to Rousseau’s »Émile«, is forced to experience the way in which the old order of society, as well as his feeling of childhood security, fades away. An agrarian reform takes away the family’s ancestral benefices and the parents get divorced. Through the cruelty of his schoolfellows Emilio experiences a foreshadowing of the forthcoming military dictatorship before rebelling and taking a chance on reorientation.
Fontaine works as professor for philosophy at the Universidad de Chile. At the same time he is also Director of the »Centro de Estudios Públicos«. This non-profit, academic organisation is committed to the study of the principles, traditions and institutions upon which a free, pluralistic and democratic order of society is based. Fontaine regularly has essays about political questions and cultural topics published which have appeared in newspapers such as »El Mercurio«, »Nexos« (Mexico), »Revista de Libros« (Madrid) and »Página 12« (Argentina) amongst others.
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