PAID IN FULL? JUDEO-CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS ON JUSTICE, PUNISHMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS AS MANIFEST IN THE STORY DEATH CONSTANT BEYOND LOVE (1978) AND IN THE NOVEL CHRONICLE OF A DEATH FORETOLD (1982) BY GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ

Abstract

Using a textual analytical framework and spousal murder and honour killing as fictionalised by García Márquez in Death Constant Beyond Love (1978) and Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1982), the article examines the question of punishment framed within Judeo-Christian teachings and human rights. Honour killings and spousal murders are usually premised on the desire to control female sexuality. In these narrative works García Márquez displays anxieties over due punishment for transgressors and the non-redemptive nature of colonial prison systems and is critical of adherence to irrelevant and morally conflicted social scripts. It is evident from the narratives that whatever religious teachings and laws governing these homicides, they do not always discourage the transgressions and thereby fail to reduce instances of such crimes. Thus García Márquez raises the fundamental question of the right to life, justice and punishment.