Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the reading agreement proposed by Bolaño in Los detectives salvajes. In particular, the processes that criticize readings which engage with the great political and historical narratives so successful in the literary market of the 1990s and beyond.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will analyse the function of humour in Roberto Bolaño's Los detectives salvajes. Despite the postmodern nature of this novel, the humour deployed in it does not particularly focus on parodying literary genres, satirizing particular political or social classes or criticizing official versions of history through irony. Instead, in Bolaño, humour seems to be an incoherently light approach to terribly serious situations or even a device unconnected to the plot. The unpredictable outbursts of absurdity or merciless grotesque descriptions appear in sharp contrast with the characters' struggles and tribulations and has a distancing effect that results in a metafictional reflection. The role of any narrating voice is questioned, and the very act of telling is demystified. This paper will explore the particulars of the reading agreement proposed by Bolaño, where comicality is a characteristic of the enunciation. The role humour plays in Los detectives salvajes poses the question of whether is it possible to write non-committed literature in Latin America despite the violence occurred in the 20th century.