Reading as an act of resistence

Abstract

Based on the novels Nocturno de Chile (1998) and Amuleto (1999), by the Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño, this article will consider the figure of the reader thematicized by way of the two narrators as well as the manner in which their distinct codes of reading are reflected in the textual construction of the narratives. The two conceptions of reader presented in these works are practically opposites so that this article attempts, in the first instance, to understand how such antagonisms find resonance in the literary, social, historical, and political spheres. Despite their divergence, the article will then attempt to understand in what way the two discourses coincide as they configure themselves as acts of resistance, placing in perspective concepts such as authority, power, and writing, utilizing to that end some reflections from Piglia, Steiner, and Agamben.