The discourses of love and violence in popular culture and two novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez: 'No One Writes to the Colonel' and 'Love in the Time of Cholera'

This dissertation analyzes how Colombian history has influenced Gabriel Garcia Marquez in the elaboration of the discourses of love and violence in three of his novels: El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, Cien anos de soledad, and El amor en los tiempos del colera. Censorship, violence, and socio-cultural changes brought out by La Violencia shaped Garcia Marquez in an intimate way.;This is reflected in his journalistic work published from 1948 to 1960, and subsequently, is elaborated in depth in his novels. In his journalistic writings he ponders over the deplorable political situation of his country while also highlighting the innovations and ideological influence brought about by mass media and popular culture in those years. For instance, Bringing up Father, a comic strip from the United States, becomes an integral part of his discourse of love in El coronel no tiene quien le escriba. Other subjects that appear initially in his journalistic work and later in his fiction include advertisements, the popular Cuban soap opera El derecho de nacer, as well as Latin American music such as bolero, mambo, merengue, plena y tango. Most importantly, the accordion music from the Atlantic Coast of Colombia known as musica vallenata becomes the main source of his discourse of love in El amor en los tiempos de colera. Garcia Marquez is one of the leading figures in the validation of this musical tradition that was unrecognized until the 1950s. This music is part of his Caribbean cultural identity as he is greatly inspired by the main composers of this genre. In particular, musical compositions dealing with local customs by the popular composer Rafael Escalona impact Garcia Marquez' Cien anos de soledad and El coronel no tiene quien le escriba. The romantic piece La diosa coronada, composed by Leandro Diaz, became the inspirational centerpiece for the discourse of love in El amor en los tiempos de colera .;Garcia Marquez's journalistic writings from the period of La Violencia constitute the backbone of what will later appear in his fiction. Therefore, the transformation that Colombia is undergoing in the 1950s both culturally and politically is the critical source for his discourses of love and violence.