| Summary: | This article interrogates a revision of the “dialogue of the dead”, a literary practice that can be traced
since the II century A.D., in the novel Cosas de los vivos contadas por los muertos [Things of the Living told by the Dead] (1896) by Juan Rafael Allende. Beyond the interest that might be found in documenting this ancient writing tradition, this paper places its attention on the cultural dimension, and proposes the “dialogue of the dead” as an allegory of the place of enunciation of the author. The great freedom and confrontational tone of the dead lead to a lucid and profound criticism of Chilean society in the XIX c. Allende constructs his dialogues from a place of opposition and in permanent confrontation with the emerging social groups and the Catholic Church in the context of the struggle to secularize the State.
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