New directions of the Latin American essay: identity questioning and escape routes (Fuguet, Valencia and Bolaño)

Abstract

Based on the essays written by Alberto Fuguet (1964), Leonardo Valencia (1969) and, Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003), this article reflects on the current situation of the essay genre related to the paradigm shifts triggered by the period of the by some called “The End of History” characterizing the rupturist dynamics coinciding with the new millennium. Moreover, we will reflect in three stages on the changes imposed by a process of globalization that would have made us think about the archaic or anachronistic character of the identity questions conveyed by means of the essay. Such questions did not only persist, but have evolved to a transnational position, in resonance with broader historical-cultural dynamics and progressively critical of globalization.