Wargames, ética, responsabilità. La Seconda Guerra Mondiale in El Tercer Reich e 2666

Wargames, Ethics, Responsability: World War II in El Tercer Reich and 2666

Abstract

In questo articolo viene illustrato il significato che la Seconda Guerra Mondiale ricopre nell’opera di Roberto Bolaño a partire da un confronto tra il suo racconto in 2666 e la critica al disimpegno del protagonista di El Tercer Reich, col fine di illustrare alcuni elementi realistici della scrittura di Bolaño, e il superamento delle poetiche postmoderniste. 

Nazi imagery is a recurrent theme in the whole work of Roberto Bolaño, from El Tercer Reich to 2666, through La literatura nazi en América and Estrella distante. In this essay, I will explain the meaning that Bolaño gives to the Second World War and to the Nazi memory in 2666, comparing it with the critique of a detached and abstract vision of history in El Tercer Reich, in order to highlight the post-postmodern features of his work. Bolaño draws a comparison between the crimes of the Nazis and the violence of the dictatorships of Southern America. Moreover, in his work, the Second World War functions as one of the many epiphanies of evil and of its unintelligibility that crowd Bolaño’s novels, such as the vast catalogue of feminicides described in “La parte de los crímenes” of 2666.