Gabriela Mistral and her Reading of Camille Flammarion: science, religion, and education (1904-1908)

Abstract

This article analyzes Gabriela Mistral’s reading of the works of French astronomer and novelist Camille Flammarion, during the first decade of the 20th century. The analysis focuses on the journalistic texts published by Lucila Godoy in the local press of La Serena (El Coquimbo and La Voz de Elqui), between 1904 and 1908. The main objectives are, on the one hand, to demonstrate that Mistral’s appropriation of Flammarion’s ideas constituted a relevant aspect to motivate and respond to intellectual and spiritual concerns in her initial stage as a teacher and poet; and, on the other, it seeks to verify that audiences in local contexts and peripheral spaces play an active role in the circulation of scientific knowledge, as well as in attributing meaning to it.