Enrique Lihn Carrasco (3 September 1929 – 10 July 1988) was a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, and

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. The son of Enrique Lihn Doll and María Carrasco Délano, he married Ivette Mingram (1932–2008). They had one daughter, the actress Andrea María Lihn Mingram. Linh was born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

. He aspired to be a painter but after a failed attempt at pursuing this ambition during university he abandoned that dream to pursue writing. He proceeded to develop into a

, and

and would teach literature at the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

. Lihn viewed both the past and the future as forms of death, and his emphasis on this point is evident throughout his literary works. His work revolved around his anger for the contemporary

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...

, as Chile was governed by a military

junta Junta may refer to: Government and military * Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones ** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by ...

. Works layered with social, political, and religious commentary are common throughout Lihn's canon. In 1963 he received the Atenea Award, in 1966 he won the Casa de las Américas Award in Cuba and in 1977 he received the Guggenheim Fellowship to study museology. His final book, '' Diario de Muerte'' was written in the six weeks preceding his death from cancer in Santiago. The evening before his death, he corrected the proofs. A fictionalized version of Lihn appeared in

Alejandro Jodorowsky Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (; born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French avant-garde filmmaker. Best known for his 1970s films '' El Topo'' and '' The Holy Mountain'', Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his wor ...

's autobiographical film ''

Endless Poetry ''Endless Poetry'' ( es, Poesía sin fin) is a 2016 French-Chilean drama film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. It is a sequel and the second part of Jodorowsky's film autobiography, which began with ''The Dance of Reality'' (2013), which focused ...

'' (2016) performed by

Leandro Taub Leandro Taub is an Argentinian actor, author, and motivational speaker who was born on May 5, 1983, in Buenos Aires and raised in Bariloche. As an actor, he debuted as the poet Enrique Lihn in Alejandro Jodorowsky's film Endless Poetry. He wrote ...

Notable works

Poems

*"The Dark Room" *"Cemetery in Punta Arenas" *"Six Poems of Loneliness" *"Torture Chamber" *'"Of All Despondencies" *"A Favourite Little Shrine" *"Goodnight, Achilles"

Film

*''Adiós a Tarzán'', directed by Enrique Lihn & Pedro Pablo Celedón.

Novels

*"Batman in Chile" *"The Crystal Orchestra" *"The art of the word"

Works in English

*''The Dark Room and Other Poems'', transl. by Jonathan Cohen, John Felstiner, and David Unger, 1978, New Directions *''Figures of Speech'', transl. by Dave Oliphant, 1999, Host Publications, Inc.

Notes

External links

Enrique Lihn papers, 1941-1988. Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.

Enrique Lihn webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lihn, Enrique 1929 births 1988 deaths Chilean male poets Chilean male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Chilean poets 20th-century Chilean male writers 20th-century Chilean dramatists and playwrights Deaths from cancer in Chile Male novelists