The portrayal of politics in South American literature

A major preoccupation with contemporary South American novelists, as seen with Gabriel Marquez's '100 years of solitude' and Isabelle Allende's 'The house of the spirits', is the traditional and long lasting conflict between the Liberals and the conservatives. Although a common preoccupation with Marquez, Allende, and various other Latin American novelists the manner in which this preoccupation is expressed varies considerably depending on the author. In '100 years of solitude', Marquez looks to satire in …

…the insignificance of the parties and the fact that he died for something that he did not even practise. This rhetoric is also seen with Gerineldo Marquez who, when asked what he is fighting for by Aureliano, replies: 'For the great Liberal Party.' Aureliano says that this is bad as he is fighting for '...something that doesn't have any meaning for anyone' This shows Marquez satirising the purposelessness of political conflict in Colombia.