Homo dolorosus in Diptych of the border: Logic of pictorial fiction, or degree of likeness to the truth?

Abstract

This study addresses the issue of Colombian migration to Venezuela in the late 1980s, represented in the novel Díptico de la frontera (2020) by Luis Mora-Ballesteros. The traumatic experience of migrants, who are the target of a marked xenophobia during their stay in the Venezuelan Andean foothills, is examined from the theoretical frame of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. The analysis uses the concept of La nuda vida, which is the state political principle that deprives certain human groups of legal order. The contribution of the novel by Mora Ballesteros is revealed sui generis within the Venezuelan literary canon due to its exposed isotopies and the treatment it gives to unusual themes related to the imaginary of the border. The analysis celebrates the role of the central character Juan Villamediana, who from his empathy, sensitivity and attachment to the pictorial form of writing, tells his "truth" about borderline people who suffer the consequences of paramilitarism and guerrillas. In summary, this article focuses its interest on the analysis of the novel and in particular of the compelling evidence provided by the narrator about the mistreatment and xenophobic experience of a collective. The narrated story qualifies as an artistic, corrosive and controversial piece.