Resumen de The narcobildungsroman in borderland narratives
Sicarios, or at least, their fictional avatars-the protagonists of narco narratives-are murderous prophets of destruction whose actions and words are terrifying. Their words, just like their murderous actions, are terrifying, for they stem from a strict personal code in conflict with civil society and mercantile ethics (which is also depicted in a state of erosion). As contemporary outlaws, they are individuals permanently alienated from society. Their careers and their alienation originate in an expanding drug trade that has reached all strata of U.S. and Mexican society, especially within and across the borderlands. This contemporary social development also marks the arrival of a new genre that is the subject of this article: narco-narratives, and, most recently, the narco-bildungsroman, which depicts the genesis of this permanent alienation of the hero from official society at the level of subject formation. Narco narratives are the most recent embodiment of an established genre-crime fiction-which, unlike detective fiction, focuses on the commission of crime and on the criminal or outlaw as central protagonist and (anti-)hero. One work in the emerging field of narco narratives will be closely examined: Eduardo Antonio Parra's Nostalgia de la sombra (2004)-a narco-bildungsroman.
