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The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York

El oficio de la escritura y la estetica en la obra de Roberto Bolano

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>This dissertation aims at attaining a general understanding of the aesthetics and philosophy on the practice of writing of Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003), the Chilean poet and writer, through interpretive devices developed by him and by extrinsic means. Bolaño claimed that his works stemmed from a pre-extant poetic universe, so that each work is interrelated thematically with the rest of the oeuvre and individually representative of the totality.</p> <p>Throughout the works analyzed, our two primary questions--the aesthetical and ethical--intercept while we examine his understanding of the role of the writer and literature itself. <em>Estrella distante</em> (1996), <em>Los detectives salvajes</em> (1998) and <em>2666</em> (2004) present a world of conflict where literature acts as both a means of resistance and sensual stimulus, as well as control and intellectual numbing: the canon, official literature, publishing businesses, &c. Given the differences in form and content between these pieces, each one has required a unique theoretical approach. <em>Estrella distante</em> has been analyzed against hitlerian aesthetics and the theory of the grotesque developed by Mikhail Bakhtin. <em>Los detectives salvajes</em> was treated as the central self-critique leveled by Bolaño on vanguardist movements in general but most importantly his own <em>infrarealismo</em>, where a complex combination of praise and criticism comes through. <em>2666</em> has been interpreted through the theory of <em>transmodernity</em> developed by Rosa María Rodriguez Magda, and various approaches to cultural and economic globalization.</p> <p>All pieces have been analyzed and contrasted in the last chapter through their metafictional content, bringing to light the ways in which this philosophical totality makes works converge and diverge in form, while preserving the principal concerns of the writer: for the pieces as products and for literature as a whole.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy
Level thesis:degree_level
Doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Hispanic & Luso-Brazilian Literatures & Languages
Grantor
The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York
Year dc:date.available
2014

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Inigo, Ainoa
Advisors dc:contributor.advisor
  • Araceli Tinajero
  • Jose del Valle

Subjects

dc:subject × 9

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/53
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:gc_etds-1052

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
City University of New York - Graduate Center
Base URL
academicworks.cuny.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Inigo, Ainoa. El oficio de la escritura y la estetica en la obra de Roberto Bolano. Doctoral thesis, The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York, 2014. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/53