Abstract
Synonymous with Colombian cocaine and narcoterrorism, Pablo Escobar (1949–1993) was despised by the leaders of nations and became the primary target of the US government’s war on drugs. At the same time, Escobar gained fame and adulation, he entered popular culture through television and cinema, and became romanticized, idealized and turned into a myth. The aim of the paper is to analyze how Pablo Escobar became a legend and attained immortality, why this mythologizing occurred and how cultural industries added to the mythmaking process and his shaping as a folk hero.
Zusammenfassung
Pablo Escobar (1949–1993) ist ein Synonym für kolumbianisches Kokain und Narkotika-Terrorismus; er wurde von Regierungsoberhäuptern verachtet und zum Hauptziel des Drogenkriegs der US-Regierung. Gleichzeitig erlangte Escobar aber auch Berühmtheit und Anerkennung; er trat durch Fernsehen und Kino in die Populärkultur ein, wurde romantisiert, idealisiert und in einen Mythos verwandelt. Das Ziel dieses Aufsatzes ist zu analysieren, wie Pablo Escobar zur Legende wurde und Unsterblichkeit erlangte, und der Frage nachzugehen wie diese Mythologisierung stattfand und wie es der Kulturindustrie und Medien gelang ihn zum Mythos umzugestalten.
Funding source: Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education
Award Identifier / Grant number: 009/RID/2018/19
Funding statement: The project is financed from the grant received from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education under the Regional Initiative of Excellence programme for the years 2019–2022, project number 009/RID/2018/19, the amount of funding 8 791 222,00 zloty.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
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- The Spring Man of Prague
- Remembering Pablo: Escobar refuses to be forgotten
- When Objects Misbehave
- “Separated in Neither Death nor Life”: The Folk Traditions Linking Judah Halevi and Abraham ibn Ezra
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- Submitted Books
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Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- The Spring Man of Prague
- Remembering Pablo: Escobar refuses to be forgotten
- When Objects Misbehave
- “Separated in Neither Death nor Life”: The Folk Traditions Linking Judah Halevi and Abraham ibn Ezra
- How and why Polish peasants (do not) talk about the Holocaust
- The First Oral Folk Tale Ever?
- The Ant and the Lion: Reassessing Philological-Folklore Approaches toReinhart Fuchs
- Reviews
- Crossen, Carys: The Nature of the Beast. Transformations of the Werewolf from the 1970s to the Twenty-First Century (Gothic Literary Studies 9). Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2019. 280 S.
- Submitted Books
- Submitted Books