Anatomy of the “Bruce”. Truth and Fiction in Bruce Chatwin’s <i>In Patagonia</i>

Abstract

Taking into account In Patagonia (1977) and the critical debate around it, this paper analyses how Bruce Chatwin changed the literary representation of places, undermining the traditional dichotomy between “truth” and “fiction”, and why the poetics of “Chatwinesque”—a term coined by his editor Susannah Clapp—became paradigmatic for contemporary non-fiction narrative.

Keywords

• Chatwin
• Patagonia
• Non-fiction Narrative
• Travel
• Chatwinesque