The Language of Engagement and the Projection of Storyworld Possible Selves in Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives

In this contribution, María-Ángeles Martínez explores the language of engagement in a short extract from Los Detectives Salvajes (Roberto Bolaño, 1998) and its English translation, The Savage Detectives (2007) within the framework of storyworld possible selves (SPSs). Her analysis focuses on the first cluster of SPS linguistics anchors, or linguistic expressions requiring a hybrid mental referent, inclusive of an intra- and an extra-diegetic perspectivizer, in the novel, and discusses its bearing on storyworld possible selves projection and narrative construal. The main narrative function of this first SPS cluster seems to be to invite the activation of readers' past selves as young, restless university students as the part of their self-concepts with a stronger engagement potential in this specific narrative experience.