La estética del mal: el arte inmoral en Estrella distante de Bolaño

Abstract

This work focusses on Carlos Wieder and his evil art in Bolaño’s novel Estrella distante. It will be shown that the protagonist’s art uncovers the crimes during the Chilean regime and that there is a connection between the pseudonyms he uses and the kind of art he creates. Understood as an evil character, he finds the perfect conditions during this dictatorship. Nevertheless, with an exhibition of photography, he transgresses the limits of the evil accepted by the Chilean junta. This step is interpreted as the beginning of a process of decadence that leads inevitably to Wieder’s death. Apart from the analysis of the protagonist’s art, a new proposal for the genre of the novel will be offered.