Palabra como telaraña

Imaginario democrático venezolano en Patria o muerte de A. Barrera Tyszka

Abstract

This article aims to study the collective imaginary of the concept of democracy in Venezuela through the relationship between language and literature in the novel Patria o muerte (2015) by Venezuelan author Alberto Barrera Tyszka. The narrative is set in a country absorbed by the final days of leader Hugo Chávez, marked by a sharp internal dichotomy: dictatorship vs democracy. Furthermore, the novel’s title itself is significant: it refers to a political slogan of the Chavista leader who, in 2011, chose to replace the traditional word “death” —linked to “homeland”— with “life”, further intensifying the country’s ideological conflict.The specificity of this novel lies in its selection of characters and their political ideologies: on one hand, it portrays an anti-Chavista extremist perspective; on the other, it depicts a strong radicalism and support for Hugo Chávez as a political figure. Accordingly, the study proposes to analyze the lexicon (nouns and adjectives) associated with each character in sentences that mention Chávez directly or indirectly. This project relies on the Diccionario ideológico de la lengua española by Julio Casares (2013 [1942]), with the aim of investigating how the language of literature can help to “weave democracy” in Venezuela and to uncover which “face of the coin” emerges from the novel’s linguistic and literary nuances.