In the aftermath of the bloody twenty-year internal conflict in Peru, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación, or CVR) documented the massive human rights violations by Sendero Luminoso and the Peruvian state. The CVR contextualized these abuses by producing a broad historical narrative which has fomented the creation of a new discourse in Peruvian cultural production. This thesis is concerned with how the CVR and the post-conflict search for reconciliation have influenced contemporary Peruvian literature. This paper will focus on the ‘Redención' trilogy by novelist Alonso Cueto. The three novels explore notions of forgiveness and reconciliation between perpetrators and victims of the conflict. Beginning with La hora azul (2005), the first chapter investigates the reliance on neoliberal reconciliation logic in the CVR (monetary reparations, etc.) as well as the gestures towards affective exchanges. It also explores the ways in which La hora azul stages these reliances within restitution discourse in Peru. In the second chapter, I examine La pasajera (2015) and further explore the ways in which reconciliation is tied to both affect and neoliberal logic. This leads to a discussion on how affect and the free-market work together, rather than as competing systems of exchange and how Cueto emphasizes the proximity of the victim and the perpetrator in the novel. Finally, I conclude by analyzing La viajera del viento (2016). This chapter continues to focus on the proximity of the victim and the perpetrator and how this ethically uncomfortable discourse may actually make way for new modes of forgiveness between victims and perpetrators.

En 2003, la Commission de vérité et de réconciliation du Pérou (CVR) publie un rapport sur la période de guerre interne et de violence qui a déchiré le pays entre 1980 et 2000. Ce rapport étudie ces deux décennies pour faire la lumière sur les événements et évaluer la position de divers secteurs de la société afin que les Péruviens puissent se réconcilier avec un pan de leur histoire. Dans son rapport, la CVR consacre une section aux médias, notamment la presse écrite, et salue le rôle « important » qu’ils ont joué, tout en notant au passage que leur couverture du conflit n’a pas favorisé la pacification du pays et a même pu la compromettre par moments. Ce mémoire vise à étudier la couverture de la guerre interne par les trois quotidiens péruviens les plus importants pour le tirage, Expreso, El Comercio, et La República. Il porte surtout sur la période comprise entre le début des hostilités, le 17 mai 1980, et le massacre de huit journalistes dans le village andin d’Uchuraccay, le 26 janvier 1983. Un regard est également jeté sur l’évolution du journalisme au Pérou depuis les années 1960, marquées par l’élection d’un gouvernement démocratique et aussi par l’instauration d’un régime militaire qui se maintiendra au pouvoir pendant 12 ans. Les bouleversements au cours de cette période difficile expliquent, au moins en partie, le désintérêt initialement manifesté par ces quotidiens, au-delà des différences idéologiques manifestes, à l’endroit des premiers pas du Sentier Lumineux et de sa « guerre populaire ». / In 2003, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Peru published a report on the internal war and violence that tore the country apart from 1980 to 2000. The report studied those two decades in order to shed light on the events, investigating the involvement of different sectors of society, so that Peruvians would be able to come to peace with their recent history. In its report, the TRC had a section on the media – including the written press. The report underscored the “important” role the media had played, but also stated that their coverage of the war might not have helped bring peace and may have even at times worsened the situation. This thesis aims to study the coverage of the internal war by the three daily newspapers with the largest circulation, Expreso, El Comercio and La República. It focuses on the period between the start of the war on May 17, 1980 and the massacre of eight journalists in the Andean village of Uchuraccay on January 26, 1983. It also considers the evolution of Peruvian journalism since the 1960s, when a democratic government was elected and a military junta subsequently took power and held it for 12 years. Beyond the ideological differences that characterize the three papers studied, this rocky period accounts for, at least partially, the initial lack of interest shown by the newspapers towards the first guerilla actions of the Shining Path and its popular war.

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