Bolaño's other Global South: Africa and Asia as Theme and Readership

Authors

Abstract

The article compares the thematization of Africa and Asia in Roberto Bolaño, mainly 2666, with the work’s reception in several locales from those continents. Building on sources such as the Indian writer Tanuj Solanki, the Kenyan Billy Kahora, and the Egyptian Youssef Rakha, alongside the Chinese editor Wang Ling, the Japanese translator Kenji Matsumoto and other participants in Bolaño’s global reception, Héctor Hoyos examines how the oeuvre exposes, reproduces, and subverts a Hegelian narrative of the West. Decades past his death, the author’s idea of the world keeps mutating—which affects the impact and overall meaning of his work.

Keywords:

Roberto Bolaño, Literary reception, Orientalism

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