Puppies in Los perros románticos. The representation of youth in the poetry of Roberto Bolaño

Abstract

This article analyzes the ways in which youth is questioned, from the Althusserian view, in the book Los perros románticos, by Roberto Bolaño. In order to do so, this analysis –aside from the literary field– is based on studies about youth, and recuperates Robert Merton’s notions of lawlessness and Mabel Moraña’s idea of affection, both of them, key to understand the paradox that surrounds youth: on the one side, it is seen as a desired stage (due to the positive aspects assigned to it) and, on the other, it is the cause of social disorder, since the figure of the adult is demystified when youths prefer the company of marginal groups, sometimes poetic, as the one conformed by Los perros románticos.