Absurdity and Utopia in Roberto Bolaño’s Estrella distante and “Sensini”

Then man is concerned with hope. But that is not his business. His business is to turn away from subterfuge. Yet this is just what I find at the conclusion of the vehement proceedings Kafka institutes against the whole universe. His unbelievable verdict is this hideous and upsetting world in which the very moles dare to hope.

Albert Camus

In the fiction of Roberto Bolaño (Chile, 1953–2003) violence is prevalent, and meaning is scarce. However, in much of his narrative, characters face inhospitable circumstances with critical opposition, a utopian drive for a better way of being. Bolaño wrote poetry, essays, short stories, and novels that directly and indirectly refer to the problem of existence in an absurd world.¹ This essay examines a selection of the writer’s fiction considering its utopian impulse and elements of the absurd. The novel Estrella distante (1996) and the short story “Sensini” published in the volume Llamadas telefónicas (1997) reflect the destruction of human life and society during the dictatorships of the Southern Cone while casting a distrustful glance towards any potentially redeeming discourses. By comparing these narrative works, I will focus on Bolaño’s absurd gestures and variations on the concept of utopia. Basing my readings on Lyman Tower Sargent’s recent contributions to utopian thought and Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sysiphus, this essay will address the questions: does utopia in these works signify an earnest desire for a better way of being, or is it a variation on the theme of the absurd? Also, how do these narratives use the elements of utopia and absurdity in order to confront dystopian circumstances? In “Sensini,” utopia and the absurd are developed through issues of loss, exile, and the task of the writer as the characters resist apathy. In Estrella distante, utopian projects are carried out in absurd ways that question the roles of art, literature, justice, and morality in society. Both texts display absurdity and utopianism as ridiculous, monstrous, unreasonable, and tragic. The utopian impulse in these narratives confronts dystopian aspects of the existing order and proves that the utopian drive requires such dystopian forces. On one hand, “Sensini” and Estrella distante demonstrate systematic social trauma and violence reaching absurd extremes. The utopian impulses that emerge in response are also absurd since they are inconclusive and fall short of restoring justice. On the other hand, the narrative themes of Bolaño’s fiction wrestle with the absurdity of a cruel society in a way that addresses ethical and ideological questions in a utopian, justice-seeking sense.

Utopian Thinking

Utopia is the desire to create a better world despite circumstances contrary to individual and collective liberation. Utopia is simultaneously the eu-topos (good place) and the u-topos (no place). As Gloria López Morales recalls, “utopian thought in the modern era, at least in the sense of the Renaissance, was born out of Europe’s encounter with the Americas” (62). Europe found a topos upon which those with power could project their desires concretely. However, contemporary Latin American utopias distance themselves from envisioning an ideal society in an imaginary and isolated place and, instead, opt for an indictment of historical realities with dystopian characteristics. Contemporary utopia is a critique of the actual, rather than a blueprint for a city on a hill. It combines forward-thinking social imagining with a critical reconstruction of the past and present, according to Ruth Levitas (19–20). The contemporary utopian impulse emphasizes the hope or desire for a good place over the actual proposal or implementation of a societal framework. The critic who has been most concerned with this idea in the Latin American context, Fernando Ainsa, writes the following:

Gracias al adjetivo utópico, la utopía pasó a ser ‘un estado de espíritu’, sinónimo de actitud mental rebelde, de oposición o de resistencia al orden existente por la proposición de un orden radicalmente diferente.

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Ainsa’s utopia of opposition does not require a detailed prescription for an alternative society, like the one described in Thomas More’s...