Profiling Evil from Narrative Journalism: the troubling cohabitation between the brutal and the human

Abstract

This article deals with the polyhedral portray of Evil presented in fourteen profiles of multiple murderers, torturers, dealers or rapists included in the collective book Los malos (Guerriero, 2015). The main aim is to analyze how the combination of literary resources and journalistic investigative techniques allow a better access to the inapprehensible. These profiles explore the dark areas of the human condition, delving into the gloomy duality of common human beings able to achieve extreme levels of atrocity. Journalists address their portrayed from a multidimensional perspective avoiding sensationalism and stereotypes to assume the challenge of interviewing victims and victimizers, with a narrative articulation that also evidences the ethical dimension.