War correspondents in Fiction in The Quiet American and El pintor de batallas

What is it about?

Since the profession of war correspondent came into existence in the middle of the nineteenth century, war reporters have attracted the attention of novelists. The literary representation of journalism in war times is a fundamental tool when analyzing the evolution of this profession, since it provides an opportunity to illustrate the problems when reporting conflicts and the consequences such reporting has on journalists. Graham Greene in The Quiet American and Arturo Pérez-Reverte in El pintor de batallas (The Painter of Battles) dramatize the practice of journalism when reporting wars in different eras of the profession in the last century, namely the Indochina war (in the early fifties) and the Balkans conflict (in the early nineties) respectively. Both authors, after being war correspondents, resort to fiction to reflect on the implications of experiencing and narrating wars. Through the experience of the protagonists of their novels, Fowler in The Quiet American and Faulques in El pintor de batallas, Greene and Reverte question the principles of objectivity in journalism. In their literary work, they critique the practice of this profession based on neutrality and non-involvement, revealing the contradictions inherent in the claims of objectivism in reportage.

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Why is it important?

In the wake of recent incidents that have shaken the credibility of media, ‘fake news’ – news intentionally and verifiably false, whose goal is to mislead the public – has become a global concern. Although the production of fake news is not a new phenomenon, nowadays, fake news is disseminated rapidly and widely by means of both texts and images and it has a substantial impact on public understanding of the world. In the current global media scenario, in which it is sometimes complicated to distinguish fake news from genuine news, it would be beneficial undoubtedly to place value on a journalistic practice like the one dramatized by Greene and Pérez-Reverte in their novels, professionals who verify facts, but who don't base their practice on neutrality and non-involvement.

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