Cities of rats. An approach from René Girard to two short stories, one by Franz Kafka and one by Roberto Bolaño

Abstract

René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire allows for an analysis of the founding myth and sacred violence within cultural productions. In this article, we have chosen to probe Girardian aspects within two short stories, one by Kafka and the other by Bolaño. These stories have the particularity that one is a hypotext of the other. In this sense, we will approach this regarding the use of rats as characters in cultural productions. We will talk about Girardian tools. In the last section we will try to bring together the Kafkaesque aspects of Bolaño’s story and the Girardian aspects of both stories.