DescriptionThe main subject of my dissertation focuses on the poetry and on cultural production of the nineties generation in Chile. Particularly in the poetry it can be seen how the longing for the “barrio” and the “multicancha” [multi-sport field] is, thus, nostalgia for the pre-dictatorial period. It can be interpreted, too, as a strategy of mnemonic resistance against the mandate of collective amnesia, and the process of whitening added to the narrative of economic prosperity that was imposed on the Chileans during the democratic transition. These poets denounce the loss of public spaces and the denial of memory, which have been disappearing and have been converted into a ruined landscape. The rapid modernization of the city of Santiago goes together with the lack of sites of memory. In my dissertation, I demonstrate how poetry works through textuality and throughout its performative character to reconstruct the memory of the city and recent Chilean history. This study is framed in the tradition of critical works that analyze the relationship between aesthetics and politics. More specifically, drawing on the theoretical approaches of Andreas Huyssen, Nelly Richard and Svetlana Boym, my research memories and nostalgic references of urban public spaces in the poetry of this generation, to shows the impact of the changes overcame under the neoliberal economic policies imposed during the years of dictatorship. Through language, poetry fills in the gaps of memory and opposes the “blanqueamiento de la memoria” [whitening of memory] that official narratives and acts have attempted to impose. In my thesis I also include other recent artistic productions such as comic books, documentaries and music produced during the nineties and the transition era to further highlight the issues of memory and nostalgia. I not only focus the study on the textual analysis of poetry but I also show that not only poetry, but also music such as punk and rock and documentaries address memory and nostalgia and it reflects the same concerns that theoretical approaches from sociology, history, and political sciences have expressed in relation to post-dictatorship and the process of democratic transition in Chile.