Understanding Roberto Bolano

Ricardo Gutiérrez-Mouat

Description

An examination of the novels, short story collections, and poetry of the Latin American author

In Understanding Roberto Bolaño, Ricardo Gutiérrez-Mouat offers a comprehensive analysis of this critically acclaimed Chilean poet and novelist whose work brought global attention to Latin American literature in the 1960s unseen since the rise of García Márquez and magic realism. Best known for The Savage Detectives, winner of the Rómulo Gallegos Prize; the novella By Night in Chile; and the posthumously published novel 2666, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Bolaño died in 2003 just as his reputation was becoming established.

After a brief biographical sketch, Gutiérrez-Mouat chronologically contextualizes literary interpretations of Bolaño's work in terms of his life, cultural background, and political ideals. Gutiérrez-Mouat explains Bolaño's work to an English-speaking audience—including his relatively neglected poetry—and conveys a sense of where Bolaño fits in the Latin American tradition. Since his death, eleven of novels, four short story collections, and three poetry collections have been translated into English.

The afterword addresses Bolaño's status as a Latin American writer, as the former literary editor of El País claimed, "neither magical realist, nor baroque nor localist, but [creator of] an imaginary, extraterritorial mirror of Latin America, more as a kind of state of mind than a specific place."

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• Latin American
• Ernesto Guevara
• Juan Villoro
• Jorge Volpi
• Fabulation
• Ficciones
• Analyze This
• The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim
• Rodolfo Walsh
• Miguel Serrano
• Che Guevara
• Caribbean
• Vicente Huidobro
• Salvador Elizondo
• Horacio Quiroga
• William Styron
• Reinaldo Arenas
• Alejo Carpentier
• Fictions (nouvelles)
• Augusto Roa Bastos
• Roberto Matta
• Ambrose Bierce
• Carlos Fuentes
• Arthur Rimbaud

Informations

• Publié par: University of South Carolina Press
• Date de parution: 21 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781611176490
• Langue: English

Extrait

Understanding Roberto Bola o
Understanding Modern European and Latin American Literature
James Hardin, Series Editor
volumes on
Ingeborg Bachmann
Samuel Beckett
Juan Benet
Thomas Bernhard
Johannes Bobrowski
Roberto Bola o
Heinrich B ll
Italo Calvino
Albert Camus
Elias Canetti
Camilo Jos Cela
C line
Julio Cort zar
Isak Dinesen
Jos Donoso
Friedrich D rrenmatt
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Max Frisch
Federico Garc a Lorca
Gabriel Garc a M rquez
Juan Goytisolo
G nter Grass
Gerhart Hauptmann
Christoph Hein
Hermann Hesse
Eug ne Ionesco
Uwe Johnson
Milan Kundera
Primo Levi
John McGahern
Robert Musil
Boris Pasternak
Octavio Paz
Luigi Pirandello
Marcel Proust
Graciliano Ramos
Erich Maria Remarque
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Joseph Roth
Jean-Paul Sartre
W. G. Sebald
Claude Simon
Mario Vargas Llosa
Peter Weiss
Franz Werfel
Christa Wolf
UNDERSTANDING
Roberto Bola o
Ricardo Guti rrez-Mouat

The University of South Carolina Press
2016 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN 978-1-61117-648-3 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-61117-649-0 (ebook)
Front cover photograph: Ulf Andersen. http://ulfandersen.photoshelter.com
This book is dedicated to my sons, Aidan and Asher Mouat, both lovers of good literature.
Contents
Series Editor s Preface
Acknowledgments
A Note on Translations
Chronology
1. Bola o s Life and Works
2. Bola o the Poet
3. The Turn to Fiction: Bola o s Early Novels (1981-93)
4. Siamese Twins: Nazi Literature in the Americas and Distant Star
5. Bola o s Breakthrough: The Savage Detectives
6. Two Dramatic Monologues: Amulet and By Night in Chile
7. The Stories and a Short Lumpen Novel
8. 2666: Bola o s Global Novel
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Series Editor s Preface
Understanding Modern European and Latin American Literature has been planned as a series of guides for undergraduate and graduate students and non-academic readers. Like the volumes in its companion series Understanding Contemporary American Literature , these books provide introductions to the lives and writings of prominent modern authors and explicate their most important works.
Modern literature makes special demands, and this is particularly true of foreign literature, in which the reader must contend not only with unfamiliar, often arcane artistic conventions and philosophical concepts, but also with the handicap of reading the literature in translation. It is a truism that the nuances of one language can be rendered in another only imperfectly (and this problem is especially acute in fiction), but the fact that the works of European and Latin American writers are situated in a historical and cultural setting quite different from our own can be as great a hindrance to the understanding of these works as the linguistic barrier. For this reason the UMELL series emphasizes the sociological and historical background of the writers treated. The philosophical and cultural traditions peculiar to a given culture may be particularly important for an understanding of certain authors, and these are taken up in the introductory chapter and also in the discussion of those works to which this information is relevant. Beyond this, the books treat the specifically literary aspects of the author under discussion and attempt to explain the complexities of contemporary literature lucidly. The books are conceived as introductions to the authors covered, not as comprehensive analyses. They do not provide detailed summaries of plot because they are meant to be used in conjunction with the books they treat, not as a substitute for study of the original works. The purpose of the books is to provide information and judicious literary assessment of the major works in the most compact, readable form. It is our hope that the UMELL series will help increase knowledge and understanding of European and Latin American cultures and will serve to make the literature of those cultures more accessible.
J. H.
Acknowledgments
I wish to express my gratitude to Chris Wait, permissions editor at New Directions Publishing, for allowing me to quote from Bola o s translated poetry; to Karen Stolley, chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and Michael Elliott, dean of Emory College, for supporting my work on this book by letting me bank a course in the spring of 2014; to ngel D az Miranda, who as a former graduate student at Emory suggested a connection between Oscar Hahn s poem Reencarnaci n de los carniceros and the title of Bola o s 2666 ; and to my fellow scholar Marion Elizabeth Rodgers for taking time from her busy schedule to read and make enlightening comments on my work in progress. Her generosity and encouragement were boundless.
Karen Stolley, who oversaw the editing process in the wake of Ricardo s untimely death, would additionally like to acknowledge the contributions of Amy Linenberger and Sergio Salazar, who reviewed page proofs with meticulous professionalism. Amy also did an impeccable job preparing the index. Their help was invaluable in bringing Ricardo s book on Bola o to print.
A Note on Translations
All citations from Bola o s works are from the translations listed in the bibliography. Exceptions are noted in the body of the text. Those of Bola o s works available in English are referred to by the title in translation throughout the book, unless the reference specifically involves the Spanish original. References in the bibliography to novels, stories, and poems by Latin American authors other than Bola o are given in English when available and in Spanish otherwise.
Chronology
Bola o s works are listed in the order of composition. When the date of composition is not known or covers a range of years, the original publication date suffices. Publication dates are given for both the Spanish originals and their English translations.
1953. Born in Santiago, Chile, but grows up in small towns and cities of south-central Chile (Los ngeles, Quilpu , Cauquenes).
1968. Family moves to Mexico. Lives with his family until parental separation in 1973. Then with his father while sister and mother move to Spain.
1973. Travels to Chile in August and survives Pinochet s coup on September 11. Stays five months after brief imprisonment.
1974. Returns to Mexico in January and goes back to living with father near the famous basilica of Guadalupe.
1976. Reinventar el amor (Mexico City: Taller Mart n Pescador. Reinventing Love, untranslated poetic work).
Infrarealist manifesto. (Published a year later in a short-lived journal.)
P jaro de calor: Ocho poetas infrarrealistas (Mexico City: Ediciones Asunci n Sanch s. Bird of Flames: Eight Infrarealist Poets, contains a few poems by Bola o).
1977. (January) Leaves Mexico for Barcelona, where his mother lives. Works as a night watchman in a campground near the city for several summers.
1979. Muchachos desnudos bajo el arcoiris de fuego (Mexico City: Editorial Extempor neos, Naked Boys under the Rainbow of Fire, Bola o s anthology of infrarrealista poetry).
Diario de bar ( Bar Diary, story not included in any of Bola o s story collections).
1980. Moves to Gerona (or Girona), in Catalonia, when his married sister returns to Mexico and leaves the writer her house.
Amberes (Barcelona: Anagrama, 2002; Antwerp , 2010).
1981. Meets Carolina L pez in Gerona, whom he marries in 1985.
Monsieur Pain (Barcelona: Anagrama, 1999; Monsieur Pain , 2010). Originally published in 1993 by the municipality of Toledo with the title La senda de los elefantes ( The Elephant Path ).
1983. El contorno del ojo ( The Contour of the Eye, story collected in Encuentro en Praga , Valencia: Editorial Prometeo).
1984. Consejos de un disc pulo de Morrison a un fan tico de Joyce ( Advice from a Disciple of Morrison to a Fan of Joyce, Barcelona: Anthropos).
1985. Moves to Blanes, on Spain s Costa Brava, and lives there until his death.
1989. El tercer Reich (Barcelona: Anagrama, 2010; The Third Reich , 2011).
1990. Birth of son, Lautaro, named after an indigenous Araucanian leader who fought the Spanish during the conquest of Chile.
1992. Diagnosed with terminal liver condition.
1993. Fragmentos de la universidad desconocida ( Fragments of the Unknown University, Toledo: Ayuntamiento de Talavera de la Reina). An expanded edition was published in 2007 with the title La universidad desconocida .
La pista de hielo (Alcal de Henares: Ayuntamiento, 1993; The Skating Rink , 2009).
1995. Los perros rom nticos (Ir n: Fundaci n Kuxta; The Romantic Dogs , 2008). A second expanded Spanish edition was published in 2000 with the title Los perros rom nticos: Poemas 1980-1998 , Barcelona: Editorial Lumen). El ltimo salvaje (Mexico City: Al Este del Para so). Poems from Los perros rom nticos and Fragmentos de la universidad desconocida .
1996. La literatura nazi en Am rica (Barcelona: Seix Barral; Nazi Literature in the Americas , 2008).
Estrella distante (Barcelona: Anagrama; Distant Star, 2004 ).
1997. Llamadas telef nicas (Barcelona: Anagrama; some of these stories are translated in Last Evenings on Earth , 2006; and in The Return , 2010).