Silences and Repetitions of Violence in Colombia. The Historical Novel as an Ontological Criticism of the Present

• Main Author: Jorge Enrique Blanco García
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University Library System, University of Pittsburgh 2021-01-01
• Series: Catedral Tomada: Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana
• Subjects: literatura; novela; ontología; violencia.
• Online Access: http://catedraltomada.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/catedraltomada/article/view/472

This paper addresses the contemporary historical novel as a practice of critical ontology of the present. That is to say, a field of reflection that investigates the current ontological status. In the Colombian case, historical fiction has been attentive to interpret the past of violence and armed conflict in an aesthetic way as a mechanism to understand the future of the present. This essay proposes that historical novels, despite being located in a space-time already travelled, maintain a matrix of meaning anchored in the present reality's interpellation. To this end, this paper analyzes the novels The Crime of the Century (2006) by Miguel Torres and So much blood seen (2007) by Rafael Baena.