Narrando la disrupción: mediaciones y cicatrices de la “ciudad letrada” en Colombia

Abstract

This article traces the narconovel to its origins in the Colombian novela de la Violencia, drawing on the history of the Violence period and Bogotazo through current urban imaginaries. This disruption is a facet both unique to Colombia (it’s internal migratory flows and commodity price swings), and global. Focusing on disrupted cityscapes in the urban corridor of Medellin, Cali, and Bogota, this widened context of Colombian urban letters further examines the evolution of the discourse of “lettered” and “unlettered” citizens into that of “useful” and “disposable” bodies, as is exhibited in novels as temporally distant as Gonzalo Álvarez Gardeazábal’s Condores no entierran todos los días and Laura Restrepo’s Delirio.