Marrano Spirit? … and Hispanism, or Responsibility in 2666

In “Marrano Spirit? ... and Hispanism, or, Responsibility in 2666,” Gareth Williams challenges the title of the present volume by describing the task of deconstructing (in) Hispanism as something that does not take place outside hegemonic disciplinary boundaries, but rather occupies a fold within: a withdrawal-without-exteriority. He then undertakes a close reading of “The Part About Archimboldi,” the final section of Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, arguing that the character Reiter, a Nazi soldier-turned-writer, withdraws “majoritarian markers of historical imperial domination,” entering a space that is neither properly ethical nor properly unethical. Williams names this withdrawal becoming-marrano, a concept which applies as much to the non-marrano as it does to the marrano, since the marrano enigma is not an identity but a refracting practice, a way of acting and surviving in the face of tyranny in such a way that murder and innocence are incommensurably conjoined as the most intimate wound of non-belonging.”