Date of Award

Spring 2022

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Major

LACS: Hispanic Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Priscilla Meléndez

Abstract

Although Roberto Bolaño’s outwardly irreverent, stridently innovative fictions might not show it, the Chilean author read widely. Beyond the primary, ample influence of Jorge Luis Borges in Bolaño’s literary production, I believe James Joyce to be a clear second. This thesis uncovers the Joycean aesthetic specifically in Bolaño’s short story “Últimos atardeceres en la tierra,” (2001) where I contend that the author succeeds in joining the violence of Latin American fiction with the generative epiphany of the European Joyce, particularly from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). I suggest that Bolaño does so in order to reflect upon, and to some extent, justify his life as an artist in various transnational self-exiles. The paternal character in both Joyce and Bolaño’s work becomes a central figure as a point of biographical reflection for the authors, a representative of homeland and, ultimately, of lifelong national disillusion.

Comments

Senior thesis completed at Trinity College, Hartford CT for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic Studies.

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