A BASEMENT MYTHOLOGY AND CARNIVALIZATION OF THE LATIN AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE: THE FIGURE OF CÉSAR VALLEJO IN THE NARRATIVE OF ROBERTO BOLAÑO

Abstract

The article aims to investigate the semantic irradiations of the figures of César Vallejo in the narrative of Roberto Bolaño. From Sloterdijk’s philosophical arquitectural approach ‒based on the metaphors of Dostoevsky’s Crystal Palace and the underground‒, the edges of a basement mythology are revealed in “Monsieur Pain” and “The Savage Detectives” in their link to a carnivalization of the Latin American avant-garde. This carnivalization is articulated as Latin American artists’ critique of the “desire for París” (Darío), of the instrumental reason of the modern episteme, and of the immunological or “great greenhouse” becoming of the globalized, capitalist world.