The poetic transformation of state violence with focus on One Hundred Years of Solitude and Human Acts

Abstract

The literature allows us the ability to understand and empathize with the lives of others and their problems. One Hundred Years of Solitude and Human Acts make past history and memories present by aesthetically embodying painful experiences in Colombia and Korea, respectively. In the first, it is about the massacre of the banana plantations in Colombia, which occurred in 1928, and in the second, that of Gwangju City, Korea in 1980. Although these novels differ in the place, time and reason for the tragic fact, have common elements that were written decades after the tragedy and reflected on the true way to transform poetically the tragedy caused by state violence. The history of a specific event can only be adequately and properly restored through not only official but also informal history, the memory and the interpretation of witnesses and writers, and finally the process of literary transformation. Therefore, this article aims to broaden the horizon of recognition of two tragic events by addressing the problems of historical and political violence and the narrative technique around the testimony embodied in One Hundred Years of Solitude and Human Acts.