Sociocritical Reading of El olvido que seremos: From Moral Guilt to Ethical Guilt

Abstract

This article shows, from the perspective of Edmond Cros’s sociocriticism, how the text El olvido que seremos begins as a biography of the beloved father —murdered by hired assassins manipulated by a sector of the extreme political and religious Colombian right wing whose ideology is imposed to the majorities as a hegemonic opinion— and eventually ends up by being an autobiography of the narrator-son. In spite of the rational and sceptical speech of the narrator shown throughout the text, this vision often escapes from himself and let another feelings come to the surface —not consciously and in a manner of confession— of both a divided and guilty conscience, all of which pertains to a Christian discourse  characteristic of the Western culture. The biography and autobiography end to be a liberating confession of the narrator facing the others —the readers.