Julio Cortázar

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"Cortázar" redirects here. For other uses, see Cortázar (disambiguation).

Julio Florencio Cortázar
Cortázar photographed by Sara Facio, in 1967.
Born	August 26, 1914 Brussels, Belgium
Died	12 February 1984 (aged 69) Paris, France
Pen name	Julio Denis (in his first two books)
Occupation	Writer, Translator, Novelist
Nationality	Argentine
Genres	Novel, story, poetry, prose poem, short story
Literary movement	Latin American Boom, Postmodern literature
Notable work(s)	Hopscotch Blow-up and Other Stories
Notable award(s)	Prix Médicis (France, 1974), Rubén Darío Order of Cultural Independence (Nicaragua, 1983)
Signature

Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar^[1] (American Spanish: [ˈxuljo korˈtasar] ; August 26, 1914 – February 12, 1984), was anArgentine novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an entire generation of Spanish-speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe. He has been called both a "modern master of the short story" and, by Carlos Fuentes, "the Simón Bolívar of the novel."^[2]

Contents

  

• 1 Early life
• 2 Education and teaching career
• 3 Years in France
• 4 Work and legacy
• 5 Books
• 6 See also
• 7 References
• 8 Further reading
• 9 Filmography
• 
  

Early life[

Julio Cortázar was born on August 26, 1914 in Ixelles,^[3] a suburb of Brussels, Belgium. His parents, Julio José Cortázar and María Herminia Descotte, were Argentine citizens; his father was attached to the Argentine diplomatic service in Belgium.^[4] At the time of Cortázar's birth Belgium was occupied by the German troops of Kaiser Wilhelm II. To escape the dangers of living in a war zone the family moved to Zürich where María Herminia's parents, Victoria Gabel and Louis Descotte (a French National) were waiting in neutral territory. The family group spent the next two years in Switzerland, first in Zurich, then in Geneva, before moving for a short period to Barcelona. The Cortázars settled outside Buenos Aires by the end of 1919.^[5]

Cortázar's father deserted his wife when Julio was six, and the family had no further contact with him.^[6] Cortázar spent most of his childhood inBanfield, a suburb south of Buenos Aires, with his mother and younger sister. The home in Banfield, with its back yard, was a source of inspiration for some of his stories.^[7] Despite this, in a letter to Graciela M. de Solá on December 4, 1963 he described this period of his life as "full of servitude, excessive touchiness, terrible and frequent sadness." He was a sickly child and spent much of his childhood in bed reading.^[8] His mother, who spoke several languages and was a great reader herself, introduced her son to the works of Jules Verne, whom Cortázar admired for the rest of his life. In the magazine Plural (issue 44, Mexico City, May 1975) he wrote: "I spent my childhood in a haze full of goblins and elves, with a sense of space and time that was different from everybody else's."

Education and teaching career

Cortázar in his youth

Cortázar obtained a qualification as an elementary school teacher at the age of 18. He would later pursue higher education in philosophy and languages at the University of Buenos Aires, but left for financial reasons without receiving a degree.^[9] According to biographer Montes-Bradley, Cortázar taught in at least two high schools in Buenos Aires Province, one in the city of Chivilcoy, the other in Bolivar. In 1938 he self-published a volume of sonnets under the pseudonym Julio Denis.^[10] He later repudiated this volume; in a 1977 interview for Spanish television he stated that publishing it was his only transgression to the principle of not publishing any books until he was convinced that what was written in them was what he meant to say.^[11] In 1944 he became professor of French literature at the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza. In 1949 he published a play, Los Reyes (The Kings), based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

Years in France[edit]

In 1951, Cortázar, who was opposed to the government of Juan Domingo Perón,^[3] emigrated to France, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. From 1952 onwards, he worked for UNESCO as a translator. The projects he worked on included Spanish renderings of Robinson Crusoe, Marguerite Yourcenar's novelMémoires d'Hadrien, and stories by Edgar Allan Poe. He also came under the influence of the works of Alfred Jarry and the Comte de Lautréamont, and wrote most of his major works in Paris or in Saignon in the south of France, where he also maintained a home. In later years he became actively engaged in opposing abuses of human rights in Latin America, and was a supporter of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua as well as Fidel Castro's Cuban revolution and Salvador Allende's socialist government in Chile.^[12]

Cortázar had three long-term romantic relationships with women. The first was with Aurora Bernárdez, an Argentine translator, whom he married in 1953. They separated in 1967 when he became involved with the Lithuanian writer, editor, translator, and filmmaker Ugnė Karvelis, whom he never formally married, and who reportedly stimulated Cortázar's interest in politics.^[13] He later married the Canadian writer Carol Dunlop. After Dunlop's death in 1982, Aurora Bernárdez accompanied Cortázar during his final illness and, in accordance with his longstanding wishes, inherited the rights to all his works.^[14][15]

He died in Paris in 1984 and is interred in the Cimetière de Montparnasse. The cause of his death was reported to be leukemia though some sources state that he died from AIDS as a result of receiving a blood transfusion.^[16][17]

Cortázar's grave in Montparnasse, Paris

Work and legacy

Cortázar wrote numerous short stories, collected in such volumes as Bestiario (1951), Final del juego (1956), and Las armas secretas (1959). In 1967, English translations by Paul Blackburn of stories selected from these volumes were published by Pantheon Books as End of the Game and Other Stories. For the paperback edition, the collection was retitled as Blow-up and Other Stories to tie in with Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blowup(1966), which was inspired by Cortázar's story "Las Babas del Diablo" (literally, "The Droolings of the Devil", an Argentine expression for the long threads some spiders and insects leave hanging between the trees), which was in turn based on a photograph taken by Chilean photographerSergio Larraín during a shoot outside of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.^[18] Puerto Rican novelist Giannina Braschi used Cortázar's story as a springboard for the chapter called "Blow-up" in her bilingual novel Yo-Yo Boing! (1998), which features scenes with Cortázar's characters La Maga and Rocamadour.^[19] Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño claimed Cortázar as a key influence on his novel The Savage Detectives: "To say that I'm permanently indebted to the work of Borges and Cortázar is obvious."^[20] Cortázar's story "La Autopista del Sur" ("The Southern Thruway") influenced another film of the 1960s, Jean-Luc Godard's Week End (1967).^[21]

Cortázar published four novels during his lifetime: Los premios (The Winners, 1960), Hopscotch (Rayuela, 1963), 62: A Model Kit (62 Modelo para Armar, 1968), and Libro de Manuel (A Manual for Manuel, 1973). Except for Los premios, which was translated by Elaine Kerrigan, these novels have been translated into English by Gregory Rabassa. Two other novels, El examen and Divertimiento, though written before 1960, only appeared posthumously.

The open-ended structure of Hopscotch, which invites the reader to choose between a linear and a non-linear mode of reading, has been praised by other Latin American writers, including José Lezama Lima, Giannina Braschi, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa.^{[citation needed]} Cortázar's use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness owes much to James Joyce^[22] and other modernists,^{[citation needed]} but his main influences were Surrealism, the French Nouveau roman and the improvisatory aesthetic of jazz.^{[citation needed]} This last interest is reflected in the notable story "El perseguidor" ("The Pursuer"), which Cortázar based on the life of the bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker.^[23] Cortázar also mentions Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet several times in Hopscotch.^[24] Cortázar's first wife, Aurora Bernárdez, translated Durrell into Spanish while Cortázar was writing the novel.

Cortázar also published poetry, drama, and various works of non-fiction. He also translated Edgar Allan Poe's 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket into Spanish asNarración de Arthur Gordon Pym. One of his last works was a collaboration with his third wife, Carol Dunlop, The Autonauts of the Cosmoroute, which relates, partly in mock-heroic style, the couple's extended expedition along the autoroute from Paris to Marseille in a Volkswagen camper nicknamed Fafner.

In Buenos Aires, a school, a public library, and a square in the Palermo neighborhood carry Cortázar's name.

Duke University Press formerly published a literary journal called Hopscotch: A Cultural Review, named after Cortázar's novel.

Cortázar is mentioned and spoken highly of in Rabih Alameddine's novel, Koolaids: The Art of War, which was published in 1998. Cortázar was also mentioned in Daniel Levin Becker's Many Subtle Channels as one of the few people to have declined an invitation to the Oulipo.^[25]

Books

• Axolotl^{[citation needed]}
• Presencia (1938)
• Los reyes (1949)
• El examen (1950, first published in 1985)
• Bestiario (1951)
• Final del juego (1956)
• Las armas secretas (1959)
• Los premios (The Winners) (1960)
• Historias de cronopios y de famas (1962)
• Rayuela (Hopscotch) (1963)
• Todos los fuegos el fuego (1966)
• Blow-up and Other Stories (1968); originally published in Spanish as Ceremonias (Barcelona, Seix Barral), by which title it is widely known in Spanish literary circles, and in English (translated by Paul Blackburn) as End of the Game and Other Stories. A compilation of stories translated into English from the books Final del juego and Las armas secretas
• Around the Day in Eighty Worlds (La vuelta al día en ochenta mundos) (1967)
• 62: A Model Kit (62/modelo para armar) (1968)
• La noche boca arriba (1968)
• Last Round (Último Round) (1969)
• Prosa del Observatorio (1972)
• Libro de Manuel (1973)
• Octaedro (1974)
• Fantomas contra los vampiros multinacionales (1975)
• Alguien anda por ahí (1977)
• Territorios (1978)
• Un tal Lucas (1979)
• Queremos tanto a Glenda (1980)
• Deshoras (1982)
• Autonauts of the Cosmoroute (Los autonautas de la cosmopista) (1983)
• Nicaragua tan violentamente dulce (1983)
• Divertimento (1986)
• Diary of Andrés Fava (Diario de Andrés Fava) (1995)
• Adiós Robinson (1995)
• Save Twilight (1997)
• Cartas (Three volumes, 2000; expanded version in five volumes, 2012)
• Papeles inesperados (2009)
• Cartas a los Jonquieres (2010)

See also

• État second
• Sophie Bohdan

References

1. Jump up^ Montes-Bradley, Eduardo. "Cortázar sin barba". Editorial Debate. Random House Mondadori. p.35 Madrid. 2005.
2. Jump up^ The New York Review of Books. March 4, 1984
3. ^ Jump up to:^a b Cortázar sin barba, by Eduardo Montes-Bradley. Random House Mondadori, Editorial Debate, Madrid, 2004
4. Jump up^ Herráez, Miguel. Julio Cortázar, Una Biografía Revisada Alrevés, 2011 ISBN 9788415098034p. 25
5. Jump up^ Montes-Bradley, Eduardo. "Cortázar sin barba". Editorial Debate. Random House Mondadori. p.110 Madrid. 2005.
6. Jump up^ Herráez, Miguel. Julio Cortázar, Una Biografía Revisada Alrevés, 2011 ISBN 9788415098034p. 38 & p. 45
7. Jump up^ Banfield is mentioned in the short story "Conducta en los velorios" from Historias de cronopios y de famas.
8. Jump up^ Julio Cortázar - A fondo TVE 1977
9. Jump up^ Herráez, Miguel. Julio Cortázar, Una Biografía Revisada. Alrevés, 2011 ISBN 9788415098034 p. 343
10. Jump up^ Conversaciones con Cortázar Omar Prego, Muchnik Editores, 1985 (p.33)
11. Jump up^ Julio Cortázar - A fondo TVE 1977
12. Jump up^ [1]
13. Jump up^ Mario Goloboff (1998). "Chap. 11: De otros lados". Julio Cortázar - La biografía. pp. 170–174.ISBN 950-731-205-6.
14. Jump up^ «Las cartas de Cortázar», article in the newspaper El Mundo (Madrid) dated 15 July 2012.
15. Jump up^ Julio Cortázar. Cartas, 3 (2000 edition, Alfaguara), p. 1785. ISBN 9505115938
16. Jump up^ Una nueva biografía sostiene que Cortázar habría muerto de sida clarin.com, 7.06.2001
17. Jump up^ «Peri Rossi: “Cortázar murió de sida por una transfusión”», article in the newspaper ABCfrom 25 January 2009.
18. Jump up^ post (2012-01-24). "Fallece Sergio Larraín, el mítico fotógrafo chileno que renunció al mundo | Cultura". La Tercera. Retrieved 2012-02-09.
19. Jump up^ Debra A. Castillo, editor, Redreaming America: Toward a Bilingual American Culture, "Language Games," by Ilan Stavans, pages 172-186,SUNY, New York, 2005.
20. Jump up^ Roberto Bolaño, Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles, and Speeches, 1998-2003, trans. Natasha Wimmer, New York: New Directions, 2011, 353.
21. Jump up^ Jean Franco, "Comic Stripping: Cortázar in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", in Critical Passions: Selected Essays, eds. Mary Louise Pratt and Kathleen Newman, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999, p. 416.
22. Jump up^ Julio Cortázar y James Joyce
23. Jump up^ Doris Sommer, "Grammar Trouble for Cortázar", in Proceed with Caution, When Engaged by Minority Writing in the Americas, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 211.
24. Jump up^ Sligh, Charles. "Reading the Divergent Weave A Note and Some Speculations on Durrell and Cortázar." [Deus Loci: The Lawrence Durrell Journal] NS 6 (1998): 118-32.
25. Jump up^ Becker, Levin (2012). Many Subtle Channels. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 197–200. ISBN 9780674065772.

Further reading

English

• Julio Cortázar (Modern Critical Views). Bloom, Harold, 2005
• Schmidt-Cruz, Cynthia (2004). Mothers, Lovers, and Others: the short stories of Julio Cortázar. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-5955-3.
• Julio Cortázar (Bloom's Major Short Story Writers). Bloom, Harold, 2004
• Weiss, Jason (2003). The Lights of Home: a century of Latin American writers in Paris. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-94013-9.
• Standish, Peter (2001). Understanding Julio Cortázar (Understanding Modern European and Latin American Literature). University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-390-2.
• Questions of the Liminal in the Fiction of Julio Cortázar. Moran, Dominic, 2000
• Critical Essays on Julio Cortázar. Alazraki, Jaime, 1999
• Alonso, Carlos J. (1998). Julio Cortázar: new readings. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-45210-6.
• Stavans, Ilan (1996). Julio Cortázar: a study of the short fiction. New York: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-8293-1.
• The Politics of Style in the Fiction of Balzac, Beckett, and Cortázar. Axelrod, Mark, 1992
• Writing at Risk: Interviews in Paris With Uncommon Writers. Weiss, Jason, 1991
• Rodríguez-Luis, Julio (1991). The Contemporary Praxis of the Fantastic: Borges and Cortázar. New York: Garland. ISBN 978-0-8153-0101-1.
• Yovanovich, Gordana (1991). Julio Cortázar's Character Mosaic: reading the longer fiction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-5888-1.
• Carter, E. Eugene (1986). Julio Cortázar: Life, Work and Criticism. Fredericton, Canada: York Press. ISBN 978-0-919966-52-9.
• Peavler, Terry J. (1990). Julio Cortázar. Boston: Twayne. ISBN 0-8057-8257-5.
• Boldy, Steven (1980). The Novels of Julio Cortázar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-23097-1.

Spanish

• Discurso del Oso. children's book illustrated by Emilio Urberuaga, Libros del Zorro Rojo, 2008
• Montes-Bradley, Eduardo (2005). Cortázar sin barba. Madrid: Random House Mondadori. pp. 394 Hard Cover. ISBN 84-8306-603-3.
• Imagen de Julio Cortázar. Claudio Eduardo Martyniuk, 2004
• Julio Cortázar desde tres perspectivas. Luisa Valenzuela, 2002
• Otra flor amarilla: antología: homenaje a Julio Cortázar. Universidad de Guadalajara, 2002
• Yo y Cortázar. Christina Perri Rossi, 2001
• Julio Cortázar. Cristina Peri Rossi, 2001
• Julio Cortázar. Alberto Cousté, 2001
• La mirada recíproca: estudios sobre los últimos cuentos de Julio Cortázar. Peter Fröhlicher, 1995
• Hacia Cortázar: aproximaciones a su obra. Jaime Alazraki, 1994
• Julio Cortázar: mundos y modos. Saúl Yurkiévich, 1994
• Tiempo sagrado y tiempo profano en Borges y Cortázar. Zheyla Henriksen, 1992
• Cortázar: el romántico en su observatorio. Rosario Ferré, 1991
• Lo neofantástico en Julio Cortázar. Julia G Cruz, 1988
• Los Ochenta mundos de Cortázar: ensayos. Fernando Burgos, 1987
• En busca del unicornio: los cuentos de Julio Cortázar. Jaime Alazraki, 1983
• Teoría y práctica del cuento en los relatos de Cortázar. Carmen de Mora Valcárcel, 1982
• Julio Cortázar. Pedro Lastra, 1981
• Cortázar: metafísica y erotismo. Antonio Planells, 1979
• Es Julio Cortázar un surrealista?. Evelyn Picon Garfield, 1975
• Estudios sobre los cuentos de Julio Cortázar. David Lagmanovich, 1975
• Cortázar y Carpentier. Mercedes Rein, 1974
• Los mundos de Julio Cortázar. Malva E Filer, 1970

Filmography

• La Cifra Impar, 1960. Feature film by Manuel Antín, based on "Letters from Mother".
• Circe, 1963. Feature film by Manuel Antín, based on "Circe". Script by Manuel Antin and Julio Cortázar.
• El Perseguidor, 1963. Feature film by Osias Wilenski, based on "El perseguidor".
• Intimidad de los Parques, 1965. Feature film by Manuel Antín.
• Blow Up, 1966. Feature film by Michelangelo Antonioni, based on "Las Babas del diablo".
• Cortázar, 1994. Documentary directed by Tristán Bauer.
• Cortázar, apuntes para un documental, documentary. Eduardo Montes-Bradley (Director), Soledad Liendo (Producer). Theatrical release 2002. DVD Release 2007.
• Graffiti, 2005. Short movie based on Julio Cortázar´s short story "Graffiti". Directed by Pako González. [2]
• "Graffiti, 2006, Short movie based on Julio Cortázar´s short story "Graffiti". Directed by Vano Burduli [3][4]
• "Mentiras Piadosas" (released in English as Love Lies), 2009. Feature film by Diego Sabanés, based on the short-story "The Health of the Sick" by Julio Cortázar.