This thesis analyses representations of urban violence in Colombia within four cultural products published/released in the time period 1990 to 2005 . The cultural products belong to genres commonly regarded as distinct, and divided between ‘fiction’ and ‘non-fiction’ – a novel, film, ‘testimonio’ and documentary. Methodologically, the analysis focuses on each cultural product as a whole – the text itself and its marketing paratext. In this focus on the cultural product as a whole, it also considers the role of the audience in the consumption of the cultural products and their themes. The theme the thesis specifically engages with is the representation of violent actors, and focuses in particular on their status as fourth world inhabitants. The fourth world is a theoretical category developed by Manuel Castells to describe spaces which are excluded from global networks and flows of information, resulting in ‘black holes’, such as favelas, inner city ‘ghettos’ and slums, in which inhabitants are unable to gain access to services and regular employment. The thesis looks at the development of myths surrounding these spaces and their inhabitants, and the role played by cultural products in constructing and perpetuating divisive myths. It posits a growing globally homogenised representation of the fourth world inhabitant as violent and destructive, creating a binary between fourth and first world inhabitants to which the representations in these particular Colombian cultural products are linked. Overall, the thesis argues that the representation of violent actors in Colombia, and in particular the city of Medellín in this time period, illustrates that the distinction between fiction and non-fiction has collapsed, due to the strength of myths surrounding fourth world figures.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:658099 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Parry, Sarah |
| Publisher | University of Liverpool |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/2004319/ |
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