“The present was a weight and an obstacle” subjectivities of orphanage in the narrative of the colombian Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Authors

  • Daniuska González González Universidad de Playa Ancha

Abstract

This article begins with the premise that the literature of Colombian novelist Juan Gabriel Vásquez (Bogotá, 1973) differs significantly from explicit narratives of violence, especially in so-called “narcoliterature.” In dialogue with ideas from authors such as Jameson, Bauman, Vattimo, Chambers and Thiebaut, it examines the construction of the subject in Vásquez’s novels El ruido de las cosas al caer (2011), Las reputaciones (2013), and La forma de las ruinas (2015). In particular, it understands this construction of the subject in relation to the Chilean poet Jaime Quezada›s term “huerfanía” (“orphanhood”), a condition that arises from childhood feelings and fills the subject’s present life with boredom and anomie.

Keywords:

Juan Gabriel Vásquez, HispanoamericanLiterature, LiteraryCriticism, XXI century