Table Of ContentPostmodernism of Resistance in
Roberto Bolaño’s Fiction and Poetry
Postmodernism of
Resistance in
Roberto Bolaño’s
Fiction and Poetry
J. Agustín Pastén B.
University of New Mexico Press Albuquerque
•
© 2020 by the University of New Mexico Press
All rights reserved. Published 2020
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-0-8263-6186-8 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-8263-6187-5 (electronic)
LCCN: 2020941470
Cover illustration: Bolaño’s Predicament by Sandra Guzmán Maluenda
Designed by Felicia Cedillos
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
A Note on the Text xi
Chapter 1. Introduction and Theoretical Background 1
Chapter 2. An Engaged Postmodern Poet’s
Three-pronged Line of Defense 48
Chapter 3. The Detective Genre: A Hero with Multiple Faces 88
Chapter 4. History, Nomadic Gatherings, and Territory in
Bolaño’s Short Stories 135
Chapter 5. The Republic of Letters’ Trials and Tribulations 185
Chapter 6. Literature and Disenchantment 241
Chapter 7. 2666: Historical Hauntings and Capitalism’s Dark
Side 273
Conclusion 293
Notes 303
Books by Rober to Bolaño (1953–2003) 407
Works Cited 409
Index 439
v
Acknowledgements
Several years ago, in Santiago, Chile, a few hours after Sergio Parra had
introduced Luis Cárcamo-Huechante to me, and as he and I were riding
the bus to our respective homes, I asked him what writers I should read.
Luis suggested two authors and two books: Bolaño’s Los detectives salvajes
and Lemebel’s De perlas y cicatrices. My firstthanks, therefore, goes to him
even though some years went by before I read Bolaño’s novel; at the time,
my research dealt with the concept of literature in nineteenth century lit-
erary magazines published in Chile, not with Latin American narrative.
When I finallyread Los detectives salvajes, I liked it so much that I decided
to change my research focus. At the same time, I began teaching a graduate
course on the Latin American novel that included novels by Bolaño. Even-
tually, the idea came to me to write a book on contemporary Latin Ameri-
can novelists. When I arrived at North Carolina State University from the
University of Nebraska, my friend and colleague Greg Dawes, realizing that
my project was too ambitious regarding the subject, globalization, but also
the number of authors I wanted to include, suggested I just zero in on
Bolaño’s work and forget the others. I am forever thankful to him for hav-
ing insisted on this idea even though I was fearfully aware that it was
becoming more and more difficult to publish monographs on single
authors and the number of scholarly articles on Bolaño’s novels, especially,
continued to grow exponentially.
Once I finallybegan to write the book, Greg reviewed each of the chap-
ters as well as the proposal, offering multiple insightful comments and
suggestions; I am most thankful for his generosity and enthusiasm. I would
also like to express my appreciation to my friend Jon Thompson, who also
reviewed the proposal and helped me out with various crucial matters
involving the project. Thanks are due as well to my friend and colleague
vii
viii | Acknowledgments
Shelley Garrigan, whose perspicacious reading of the proposal definitel
improved it.
I would like to express my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers,
whose careful review of the manuscript and very useful recommendations
have made this a more solid study. I am especially thankful to Elise
McHugh, my editor at the University of New Mexico Press, who not only
supported my book project from day one but also did not throw in the
towel when, to my utter shock and disbelief, an unexpected huge obstacle
that had nothing to do with literary matters, ended up delaying the pub-
lication of the book. At UNM Press, I would also like to thank Denise
Edwards, whose careful scrutiny of the whole manuscript has prevented
the existence of typographical errors, awkward sentences, and so on;
thanks to her impeccable editing, the book reads much better now.
I owe a special debt of gratitude to Chilean portrait artist Sandra Guz-
mán Maluenda and to Patricia Morgado Maúrtua. When asked if she
would be willing to make a painting based on the idea I had for the
book’s cover, Sandra graciously accepted and began work on it immedi-
ately. Patricia, for her part, provided invaluable assistance with the per-
spective of the map of Latin America as well with color, her expertise;
likewise, she is the one who suggested that I have Sandra paint the image
I wanted in the firstplace. I could not be happier with the result and am
indeed thankful to both. I am also indebted to Bastián Pastén Delich for
dissuading me from having had Bolaño adopt Rodin’s “Le penseur” pos-
ture as he contemplates the map of Latin America on the book cover.
Thanks, moreover, to Lolita Maúrtua, who always made sure to send me
newspaper articles on Bolaño from Chile; and to Emilio Morgado, who
threatened not to come back to Raleigh until the manuscript was com-
plete.
I am very grateful, of course, to North Carolina State University and to
Ruth Gross, the chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Liter-
atures. To the University for having provided travel funding that allowed
me to present papers on Bolaño at the MLA, LASA, and the Kentucky
Foreign Language Conference, and research funding to visit Spain’s Bib-
lioteca Nacional in Madrid; and to Ruth Gross for having given me a semes-
ter departmental leave that made it possible to concentrate exclusively on
the book project.
I would also like to express my gratitude to the students who took my
Acknowledgments | ix
seminar on Bolaño here at North Carolina State University, especially
Samuel Sotillo and Pedro Salas; I have benefited immensely from their
intellectual acumen. At the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile, when I began my
research, Juan Camilo Lorca and Daniel Fuenzalida were extremely gener-
ous in providing me with bibliographical material on Bolaño not available
in the United States; I am very grateful to them.
Finally, I would like to thank both Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos
and Chasqui for allowing me to use material originally published in their
pages:
“De la institucionalización a la disolución de la literatura en Los detectives
salvajes, de Roberto Bolaño.” Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos 33,
no. 2 (2009): 423–46.
“Anatomy of the Detective Genre in Roberto Bolaño’s Poetry.” Chasqui
42, no. 1 (2013): 16–36.
