Intentional vulnerability During Chile’s Dictatorship in Roberto Bolaño’s Nazi Literature in America, Distant Star and By Night in Chile

Roberto Bolaño’s Nazi Literature in America, Distant Star and By Night in Chile show that the vulnerability of some characters is an intentional and interdependent issue that unfolds in kidnapping, torture, murder and forced disappearance as a result of a subjectivation that goes beyond the norm  established by the neo-liberal state power. I support my assertions in Judith Butler’s notion of vulnerability and interdependence, Adriana Fuentes’s approach to subjectivity, and David Harvey’s proposal about neoliberalism. The objective is to show how these narratives are in a dialogue with vulnerable characters who were systematically annihilated because of a political ideology that disagrees with neoliberal principles. Through the reflections of the article, I conclude that Bolaño’s position in writing about political dissidents is to make them visible as bodies that matter.

Vulnerability, subjectivation, interdependence, sovereign power