Martyrdom as a Narrative Form, a Sign, and a Myth in Cóndores no entierran todos los días and Estaba la pájara pinta sentada en el verde limón

The genesis of the fictions of Gustavo Álvarez and Albalucía Ángel is demarcated in ‘el 9 de abril’, name given to the social outburst that occurs in Colombia after the magnicide of the politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán (1948). The notion of martyrdom is assimilated in the literary works as a sign and a myth to depict the disproportion of violence under the frame of the bipartisan conflict. In the fictions martyrdom is implemented as a narrative device and an artefact to revisit the past and reflect on the nation. By adopting postmodernist readings in fields such as ‘biopolitics’, cultural sociology, and concepts like ‘culture hybridity’ proposed by Homi Bhabha, we find that disfigurations of original Christian myths take place in the fictions with a subversive purpose. Although modern martyrdom is rooted in Christianity, the phenomenon erases the borders between politics and religion, given that its secularization is manifested through social movements and the cultural construction that rises around the martyr. Nowadays, ‘el 9 de abril’ not only commemorates the magnicide, but it has established itself as a National Civic Day to pay homage to all the victims of the armed conflict.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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