Chilean author Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003) has achieved considerable critical and commercial success among a global English readership. Breaking into the US market, which has an important mediating role for the international circulation of texts, is a rare feat for a non-Anglophone author and requires some explanation. In the spirit of Pascale Casanova’s international criticism, this paper looks at Bolaño’s work as world literature and his persona as a world-literature figure against which theories on the subject can be measured. Furthermore, I will partly use his posthumous novel, 2666, as an example of a work that arises out of this process of becoming-world-literature. The success of Bolaño more or less conforms to the main theories of world literature (Casanova, Moretti, Thomsen), but it also reveals interesting mismatches and problematic aspects that show a need to update existing theories.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-118125 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Jónsson, Friðrik Sólnes |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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