This article presents a tendency in contemporary Latin-American literature to mix genres and use fictional literary criticism in the construction of hybrid novels and short stories. With Chilean writer Roberto Bolano (1953-2003) as an exemplar, the article presents the main elements of this type of narrative, and establishes a parallel with other contemporary writers from Latin America. Finally, on offer is a theoretical hypothesis designed to explain this tendency in relation to the Latin-American literary tradition and the recent transformations in the Humanities and Social Sciences.