ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I argue that in his literary work, Roberto Bolaño stages three different types of translatio inferni as a cultural and political translation of hells. I propose the concept translatio inferni in analogy to the long-established concepts of translatio imperii and translatio studii, which go back to the Book of Daniel and imagine a series of empires that translate into one another through history. In his novels, Bolaño confronts the infernal underworlds of self-declared centres of civilization, such as the Third Reich, depicting them as political hells that he interprets as translations of one another, comparing, for example, Nazi Germany and Chile under Pinochet. In addition, he translates literary concepts and metaphors of hell offered by, for example, Dante, into the Latin American context. This includes the use of ‘infernal language’ by fascist ideologies, as in the totalitarian language of Nazi Germany as described by Victor Klemperer, but mixed with the language of the literary field. Lastly, Bolaño translates the imagery of hell from the political realm into the literary scene with actors such as Hans Reiter in the novel 2666, who is at the same time a soldier of the Wehrmacht and a writer.
