Is it possible to teach on Roberto Bolaño? Difficulties, challenges and possibilities from the teaching of literature

Abstract

Reading Bolaño poses a series of difficulties and challenges, but also of possibilities for the didactics of literature. For this reason, we propose from this perspective of teaching and research several questions on which we offer some approaches that contribute to enjoy and understand one of the most heterodox and provocative works of Latin American and universal literature: Is it possible to teach on Roberto Bolaño? At what school levels could this adventure be undertaken? Or could the teaching only be aimed at Bachelor of Arts degree students in higher education? What texts by Bolaño would be more or less "teachable" for the new generations in the context of a student’s project? Among our first conclusions, we argued that the great complexity of major works such as The Savage Detectives and 2666 would make them inaccessible for high school students, but that their poems, essays and short stories, and a short novel such as Distant Star could be a gateway to his work. Finally, we propose a unifying theme as a didactic project: the research on the vocation of the writer, which in Bolaño's texts is enriched with a connotation of wild adventure through countries, cultures and internal struggles, which would bring him closer to the young people of this era.

Keywords

• latin american literature
• student’s project
• short novel
• teaching of literature