Política e identidad culturalen la desesperanza de José Donoso

This article considers the political significance of the construction of nationalidentity in José Donoso?s La desesperanza. Although much contemporarycriticism has regarded this work as a realist novel, this analysis examines itsstaging of the discursive conflict between competing ideas of what it meansto be Chilean. The central argument is that the novel?s critical force derivesfrom its ironic exploration of the values of the Chilean middle classes whichare unconsciously based on a racism that is closely linked to the classprejudices that have structured Chilean society since colonial times.