Heterotopias and marginal space in Amuleto by Roberto Bolaño

Abstract

The article analyzes Amuleto (1999) by Roberto Bolaño as a reconfiguration of the memory of the 1968 student movement from the margins of social space. Unlike other narratives centered on Tlatelolco, the novel shifts the focus toward the occupation of Ciudad Universitaria and situates the core of the narrative in the bathroom of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at UNAM. This space is interpreted as a heterotopia, in the terms of Michel Foucault, from which Auxilio Lacouture articulates an alternative memory of ’68. The protagonist, characterized as a foreigner, a marginal poet, and a picaresque figure, inscribes herself within a tradition of eccentric characters who, from their liminal position, enable a critical reading of reality, which allows her to be linked to the categories of Bajtin. From this double theoretical articulation, the article argues that the novel constructs a heterotopic memory of ’68, displacing the event toward marginal spaces and questioning dominant forms of historical representation. Amuleto proposes a poetics of marginality that challenges traditional ways of representing history.