Postmodernism of Resistance in Roberto Bolaño’s Fiction and Poetry PDF
Preview Postmodernism of Resistance in Roberto Bolaño’s Fiction and Poetry
Postmodernism 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.
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