Men of letters and drug trafficking in two decades of colombian literature
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Appearing with characters representing violence and illegality there are depictions of men of letters in novels displaying the historical era in which narcotráfico determined political and social behaviors in Colombia. The question to be considered here is “What is the role of men of letters in that literature?” Thus, in order to move beyond the stereotypes of violent characters in literary works, and to consider the change of social relations depicted in the literature about narcotráfico, this paper attempts to point out the role played by men of letters in a short selection of novels published between 2003 and 2008. The most important being Angosta by Héctor Abad Faciolince. This work studies how the protagonists of the selected novels contest the representations of men of letters in narratives about narcotráfico from the previous decade. It also shows how these characters promote the transition towards a more complex depiction of narcotráfico in literature, its violence and its effects on Colombian society.
- Men of letters
- Hombres de letras
- Intellectual
- intelectual
- Drug trafficking
- narcotráfico
- Angosta
- literatura colombiana
- Colombian literature
Abad, F. H. J. (2007). El olvido que seremos. Bogotá: Editorial Planeta Colombiana.
Camacho C., J. M. (2006). “El narcotremendismo literario de Fernando Vallejo. La religión de la violencia en La virgen de los sicarios.” Revista De Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, 32(63/64), 227-248.
Franco, J. (2002). The decline and fall of the lettered city: Latin America in the cold war. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Jaramillo, A. D. (1999). Cartas cruzadas. México: Era.
Lander, M. F. (2003). “La voz impenitente de la “sicaresca” colombiana.” Revista Iberoamericana, 73(218) doi:10.5195/reviberoamer.2007.5374
Lander, M. F. (2007). “The Intellectual’s Criminal Discourse in ‘Our Lady of the Assassins’ by Fernando Vallejo”. Discourse, 25(3), 76- 89. doi:10.1353/dis.2005.0003
Osorio, O. (2007). El cronista y el espejo. Cáceres: Institución Cultural “El Brocense”.
Papacchini, A. (1995). “Dignidad y violencia.” Praxis Filosófica. Nueva Serie (5), 27-78.
Pécaut, D. (2006). Crónica de cuatro décadas de política colombiana. Bogotá: Grupo Editorial Norma.
Restrepo, L. (2004). Delirio. Bogotá, Colombia: Alfaguara.
Rosero, D. E. (2007). Los ejércitos. Barcelona: Tusquets Editores.
Said, E. W. (1996). Representations of the intellectual: the 1993 Reith Lectures. New York: Vintage.
Vallejo, F. (2002). La virgen de los sicarios. Madrid: Alfaguara.
