Violencia, memoria y empatía reflexiva en El ruido de las cosas al caer de Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Author(s)

Carlos Gardeazábal Bravo, University of DaytonFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-21-2022

Publication Source

A Contracorriente: una revista de estudios latinoamericanos

Volume

20

Issue

1

Publisher

North Carolina State University

Inclusive pages

67-96

ISBN/ISSN

1548-7083

Peer Reviewed

yes

Abstract

In this article, I show how Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s novel El ruido de las cosas al caer (The Sound of Things Falling, 2011) proposes an articulation of the works of memory and affects that can be ethically relevant within the context of the war on drugs in Colombia. I link this analysis with an interpretation of the novel that discusses the role of literature in debates about systemic violence in the global war on drugs. I propose that The noise of things falling, thanks to its affirmation of what I call reflexive empathy, questions the geopolitical designs that articulate that conflict. My study of the novel emphasizes the role of empathy within Vasquez’s novel, understood as trauma literature. I suggest that Vásquez’s intergenerational perspective invites such reflexive empathy as a connector between his various kinds of readers and the victims in that context. I also explain how the novel’s proposal regarding this type of identification is one of the primary forms with which it confronts what Hermann Herlinghaus (2009) calls the politics of guilt.

Keywords

Juan Gabriel Vasquez, Violence, Colombian Literature, Empathy, Memory, War on Drugs, Guilt

Disciplines

French and Francophone Language and Literature | German Language and Literature | Modern Languages | Near Eastern Languages and Societies | Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures | Spanish and Portuguese Language and Literature

Comments

This document is made available in compliance with the publisher's open-access policies.

eCommons Citation

Bravo, Carlos Gardeazábal, "Violencia, memoria y empatía reflexiva en El ruido de las cosas al caer de Juan Gabriel Vásquez" (2022). Global Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications and Presentations. 6.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/lng_fac_pub/6