The Decolonial, Transcultural and Neocultural Proposal in Germán Espinosa's Los Cortejos del Diablo

Abstract

Historical novels have played a pivotal role in much of 20th and 21st-century Latin American literature. The issue of grappling with the past, its reconstruction, and transformation into narrative is a central element of Los cortejos del diablo (1970) by Germán Espinosa. This research focuses on demonstrating how the Colombian writer, through various technical and thematic processes, utilizes the colonial past as a space to generate knowledge about Latin American identity. This concern for identity extends to how colonial processes deeply impact the ethical and spiritual dimensions of colonized subjects. Consequently, we propose a methodology centered on decolonial theory, shedding light on traditions through concepts such as transculturation and neoculturation, which serve as a theoretical framework for analyzing the new ought to be.