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Chapter 20 - Detective Fiction

from Part III - Genres, Discourses, Media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2022

Jonathan B. Monroe
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

Focusing on two central novels by Roberto Bolaño, Los detectives salvajes and 2666, as works of crime fiction, this chapter considers them from the point of view of the rules of the detective and murder genre. The role of the detective and the construction of the puzzle emerge in each of the two novels as both a crime and a literary question. Situating the novels in the context of the impunity and violence that defined the experience of Mexico in the last three decades, the chapter proposes an alternative way to appreciate Bolaño’s depiction of violence, less as a philosophical statement about modernity and more as an ironic vision of literature and contemporary ideologies.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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