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In this essay I study in detail “Something Escapes the Bonfire,” a poem from Martín Espada’s The Republic of Poetry (2006), which introduces the reader to prominent Chilean protest singer Víctor Jara (1932–1973) through an empathetic approach to his widow’s, Joan Jara’s, grieving process. To stress the link between empathy and grieving as a deconstruction of territorial, linguistic, and ethnic boundaries, and to counter the misrepresentation of grieving as a disempowering expression of sorrow, I follow philosopher Judith Butler’s reflections on this concept as she elaborates them in Frames of War (2009) and Precarious Life (2004). By highlighting his interaction with Joan Jara while visiting Chile in 2004 and reconstructing different key moments in Joan Jara’s grieving process, Espada establishes a solid poetic ground in the four sections of “Something Escapes the Bonfire” that pays homage to the iconic role of Jara as a protest singer before, during, and after the coup d’état of 1973 in Chile. To further detail Espada’s empathetic approach, I conclude my essay with a reference to a collaboration between him and Joan that resulted in the publication of a selection of Jara’s lyrics in English translation.

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Martín Espada: The Unfinished Waltz of Joan and Víctor Jara

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Oscar Sarmiento

摘要

In this essay I study in detail “Something Escapes the Bonfire,” a poem from Martín Espada’s The Republic of Poetry (2006), which introduces the reader to prominent Chilean protest singer Víctor Jara (1932–1973) through an empathetic approach to his widow’s, Joan Jara’s, grieving process. To stress the link between empathy and grieving as a deconstruction of territorial, linguistic, and ethnic boundaries, and to counter the misrepresentation of grieving as a disempowering expression of sorrow, I follow philosopher Judith Butler’s reflections on this concept as she elaborates them in Frames of War (2009) and Precarious Life (2004). By highlighting his interaction with Joan Jara while visiting Chile in 2004 and reconstructing different key moments in Joan Jara’s grieving process, Espada establishes a solid poetic ground in the four sections of “Something Escapes the Bonfire” that pays homage to the iconic role of Jara as a protest singer before, during, and after the coup d’état of 1973 in Chile. To further detail Espada’s empathetic approach, I conclude my essay with a reference to a collaboration between him and Joan that resulted in the publication of a selection of Jara’s lyrics in English translation.