This essay examines the relationship between writing and barbarism in Roberto Bolaño'snovels Estrella distante (1996) and Nocturno de Chile (2000), analyzing how the author portrays the intimate coexistence between art and violence in the context of Chile's military dictatorship. By portraying the world of ultra-right-wing intellectuals and literati, the author expresses the impossibility of fully disentangling literature and barbarism. I argue that Bolaño develops an anti-humanist view of literature which hints at the solidarity between high culture and barbarism, and thus indicates the exhaustion of a redemptive view of literature in Latin America.