Journalism and Fiction

In 1948, just at the outset of Márquez’ career, the progressive political leader, Jorge Elizier Gaitan, was assassinated in Bogotá. The event sparked off popular disturbances which then spread from the capital and developed into a cycle of violence lasting for over a decade. There had been many similar periods of protracted violence in the history of Colombia. A number of writers addressed this theme in works known collectively as ‘the novel of La Violencia’. Marquez devoted an article to this sub-genre in 1959, commenting on the low artistic quality of this overtly committed fiction which was performing something of the function of journalism.1