Jiménez Alfonso, Camilo Alberto, authorLeal, Francisco, advisorLópez, Maria del Mar, committee memberVan Buren, Mary, committee member2007-01-032007-01-032012http://hdl.handle.net/10217/67881Text in Spanish; title and abstract in English and Spanish.In this paper I analyze three books an autobiography, Mi confesión: Carlos Castaño revela sus secretos; a biography, Salvatore Mancuso su vida; and a novel, Líbranos del bien. Each one of them tells the life of one of the bosses of the Self-Defenses Forces of Colombia, an organization that coordinated many paramilitary groups in Colombia. The questions of this investigation are: What images do these books create about the figure of the paramilitary whose life is narrated? And what image do those books create about the paramilitary group as a phenomenon? The main claim of this work is that the three books present an indulgent image of both the character and the phenomenon. On one hand, the three books justify in one way or another the existence of the paramilitary groups; on the other hand, all of them emphasize the human aspect of the characters and reduce their crimes. Two of these books are directly related with a political discussion that was born around the demobilization process of the paramilitary groups related with the Self-Defenses Forces of Colombia between 2002 and 2006. One of the main points of this discussion was to establish if the Self-Defenses Forces of Colombia was an armed criminal organization or a political organization, and for this reason this thesis should be framed in a wider context, with the use of literature as an ideological vehicle.born digitalmasters thesesspaCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.Text