Tierra quemada by Óscar Collazos as an Allegory of Displacement in Colombia

Abstract

Through the portrayal of never-ending march of a caravan of internally displaced persons (IDPs), the novel  Tierra quemada  (2013) by the Colombian author Oscar Collazos explores the interrelation between different forms of violence and their devastating impact on the peripheric outposts of Colombia. This article proposes an allegorical reading of the novel by examining how it represents the difficulty to break the cycle of violence and the impact of a low-intensity conflict on the IDPs, without presenting a voyeuristic perspective of the violence nor a Manichean vision of the armed conflict.