The fictional emergence of the emerging middle class in Colombia in social novels

Abstract

This paper addresses the fictionalized appearance of the male and female employee in social novels from the 1930s and 1940s in Colombia, particularly analyzing a subject reproduced as precarious, in a tragic environment and, in some cases, even considered to be in a “false” social class. First, literary works that dialogue with the social novel are analyzed, highlighting the void filled by Osorio Lizarazo and Morales Pino in terms of the incorporation of the middle-class subject in this literary stream. Then, the revelations presented by the analyzed works are explored, exposing a precarious middle-class subject, experiencing a paradoxical life or one contrary to the modernizing winds that the ruling liberal political project preached. Thus, in addition to testifying about the unjust social place given to this class, these literary works ended up -roughly- sowing more doubts than certainties about the existence or authenticity of this social class. For these purposes, along with the investigation of some works of literature on the subject, reports, newspaper articles and other statements from middle-class groups of the time will be present, which allow to support certain features and experiences of the fictional subject in question.