Date of Award

Spring 4-29-2016

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Modern Languages and Literatures

First Advisor

Chichester, Ana

Second Advisor

Lewis, Elizabeth

Major or Concentration

Spanish

Abstract

On the 25th of April 2015 in an interview conducted by Dr. Alejandra Jaramillo for the newspaper EL ESPECTADOR, Colombian writer Albalucía Ángel mentioned that in a warehouse in Colombia one would be able to find a hundred thousand copies of a little "secret" book published using the title of the first verse of the Colombian national anthem --Oh Gloria Inmarcesible! The book had been deem pornographic by the national Colombian press. This particular interview elicited an infinite number of questions in my mind, some of which inspired this research project. Through various research sources I have been able to determine what became of the infamous publication mentioned by Albalucía Ángel in the interview with Dr. Jaramillo. This short story collection, as the writer herself describes it and as it appears on the title page of the book, is not just a series of "imaginary short stories." In addition to short stories, the text contains a series of visual collages constructed from newspaper articles published in Colombia during a period of national upheaval as well as a short drama. My presentation will examine the use of standard language as it appears in the Colombian press, in particular the newspapers El Tiempo and El Espectador, and the use of spoken colloquial language practiced in particular areas of the country. I will establish that the text is decisive in its tone of denunciation against public and controversial institutions such as the Armada Nacional, among others. The text also denounces the subjectivity of the press in reporting facts that relate to corruption from the government, as well as the strenuous conditions that some of the most vulnerable populations of the country are exposed to. With this in mind I want to prove that more than a "pornographic" book of short fiction, Oh Gloria Inmarcesible! is a work of literature as rich in its textual structure as in its content.

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