Roberto Bolaño's masks

The paper deals with the narrative strategy using the principle of the confusion within the fields of fiction and reality in Bolaño's second novel Monsieur Pain. The novel Monsieur Pain seems to be a kind of biography or even autobiography; however, Bolaño presents just a well narrated fiction here; i.e. he uses the narrative methods of simulation. Using the possibilities of comparative literature, the text demonstrates that Bolaño's fiction proceeds from other texts, especially biographical ones, or well-known experiences of real people. The article also refers to the literary tradition which confuses fiction with texts that seem to be a sort of scientific study. This game of confusion is present in Poe's, Borges' or García Márquez's work. Bolaño's games within reality and fiction and his avocation in veiling himself in different alter egos or fictive characters starts in this novel; it is developed by Bolaño in his other novels, for example, Los detectives salvajes or La literatura nazi en América.

Keywords: Roberto Bolaño; literary fiction and reality; intertextuality; alter ego; testimonial literature