Autobiography, criticism and fiction: the figure of the writer in Roberto Bolaño and Enrique Vila-Matas

Author(s)

Ana Paula dos Santos de Sá

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
• Defense date: 2015-06-03

Examining board members

Miriam Gárate; Wilson Alves Bezerra; Livia Grotto

• Advisor: Miriam Gárate

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the role played by the figure of the author in two novels of the Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño (Estrella Distante, 1996, and Los Detectives Salvajes, 1998) and in two books of the Spanish author Enrique Vila-Matas (El mal de Montano, 2002, and Doctor Pasavento, 2005). It attempts to observe the importance of the profile of this type of character as regards the traces of autobiography and the essayistic tone which mark the stories of these two writers. In order to do that, it discusses the possible relation between their Poetics and «autofiction» (a device directly linked to the role played by the characters who represent the figure of the author), and what the contours of the critical portrait of the literary field developed within their fictions are. The main objective is to observe the literary postures of these characters, in other words, how they deal with the writing activity and with the activity of reading as well, and what they think and say about literature (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/15966-5 - Autobiography, criticism and fiction: the figure of the writer in Roberto Bolaño and Enrique Vila-Matas
• Grantee: Ana Paula dos Santos de Sá
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master