Devotion and violence in ``La virgen de los sicarios``, by Fernando Vallejo

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.9294424010079

• Palavras-chave: Religiosity, violence, drug trafficking, Fernando Vallejo, hispanic-american novel.

• Keywords: Religiosity, violence, drug trafficking, Fernando Vallejo, hispanic-american novel.

• Abstract: This study, which is part of the dissertation entitled “Ostentation and Ruins: Kitsch and Violence in La virgen de los sicarios by Fernando Vallejo,” proposes an analysis of the Colombian writer’s book. The focus is on examining how the devotion of the sicarios portrayed in the work, the narrator’s criticism of religion, the sexual relationships with the young boys, and the context of violence that afflicted Medellín in the early 1990s, especially after the death of Pablo Escobar, challenge the established order and represent postmodern society through the banalization and fetishization of sacred symbols. To this end, the study first presents the work, followed by an analysis of the construction of the sicarios as characters, the criticisms of the church and Catholicism, and, finally, the relationship between the narrator and the sicarios.