Julio Cortazar (1914-1984)
Our daily reality masks a second reality which is neither mysterious nor theological, but profoundly human. Yet, due to a long series of mistakes, it has remained concealed under a reality prefabricated by many centuries of culture, a culture in which there are great achievements but also profound aberrations, profound distortions.
-Julio Cortazar
Biographical Information:
· Born in Brussels, Belgium moved back with family to Argentina in 1918
· Completed his first novel at the age of nine years old
· Earned his teaching degree and taught high school from 1937-1944
· Taught French Literature at the university level
· Participated in demonstrations against Peron
· Published his first short story in Borges’ literary magazine
· Later studied law and translation
· Worked for UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)
· Maintained Spanish as his literary language despite his fluency in French, German and English
· Advocate of for social reform in Latin America
· Held dual citizenship with France starting in 1981
· Died of a heart attack
Literary Significance:
· Considered a main figure of “The Boom”
· Known for constant experimentation as well as surrealistic and fantastic literature
· Much of his work is a reaction to the “Western Tradition of Rationalism”
· His short stories explored the fantastic; his novels, the existential
· Has a phobia of eating insects hidden in his food and wrote a short story called “Circe” where a woman feeds her suitors cockroaches disguised as candies
· Hopscotch, publish in 1963, is his best known work; “Cortázar's best-known work, has been called Latin America's first great novel for its complex and inventive narrative structure. Described by Carlos Fuentes as ‘one of the great manifestos of Latin American modernity,’ this novel consists of one hundred and fifty-five chapters that can be read in at least two logical sequences to create variant narratives. Cortázar uses this technique to encourage the active participation of the reader and to emphasize his disdain for traditional narrative.”
· “Critics have suggested that Cortázar strove for ambiguity as a means to express what may exist beyond humanity's rational perceptions. His stories are often characterized by humor despite their generally serious themes, and they are noted for Cortázar's technical innovations in point of view, language, and form. Jaime Alazraki commented: ‘Cortázar's stories are built with the rigorous precision and, at the same time, subtle naturalness of a cobweb. The text flows with the same perfection one finds in those fragile fabrics beautifully spun between two wires of a fence. . . . But there is nothing fragile in the texture of any of his stories.’”
· Alexander Coleman observed in Cinco maestros: Cuentos modernos de Hispanoamerica (Five Masters: Modern Spanish-American Stories): "Cortazar's stories start in a disarmingly conversational way, with plenty of local touches. But something always seems to go awry just when we least expect it."
· “Although during the last years of his life Cortazar was so involved with political activism that Jason Weiss described him in the Los Angeles Times as a writer with hardly any time to write, the Argentine had early in his career been criticized ‘for his apparent indifference to the brutish situation’ of his fellow Latin Americans, according to Leonard.”
· “Alazraki noted that Cortazar once declared, ‘Our daily reality masks a second reality which is neither mysterious nor theological, but profoundly human. Yet, due to a long series of mistakes, it has remained concealed under a reality prefabricated by many centuries of culture, a culture in which there are great achievements but also profound aberrations, profound distortions.’ Bryan further explained these ideas in the New York Times Book Review: Cortazar's ‘surrealistic treatment of the most pedestrian acts suggest[ed] that one way to combat alienation is to return to the original receptiveness of childhood, to recapture this original innocence, by returning to the concept of life as a game.’”
Resources:
Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2003. Contemporary Authors
Contemporary Literary Criticism