Hello I'm Olivia, I come from Spain and I would like to introduce you Julio Cortazar, one of the

most important contemporary writers in Spanish language I chose him not only !ecause of that !ut !ecause he received also a fundamental influence from "dgar #lan $oe, a!out whom we have spoken already, and !ecause I think he is representative of the greatest tendency in %atin #merica, the magic realism, in a very personal way &ut I'll comment on that later Cortazar was !orn in &russels in '(') !ecause his father was a diplomatic, and in '('* moved to #rgentina with his family +here he studied "ducation and Humanities, in &uenos #ires, and was a rural teacher for five years #s a student, he got to know the french sym!olism and some oriental philosophies which really influenced his work In '(,' he moved !ack to "urope, to $aris, where he worked as a -nesco translator and lived there until his dead He did it not only !ecause of the fascination that he felt for the french country !ut also !ecause of the political situation in #rgentina He wanted to runaway from the $eronist regime, after !eing !riefly imprisoned !ecause of his participation on a demonstration against it $eronist regime is a very polemic issue among the argentinians and there's still a high percentage of the population that defend his actions while he was in the power Still, when it comes to Cortazar, his attitude towards him is clear, and actually, one of his short stories, .# House +aken Over/ is considered a metaphor against peronism 0ayuela 1hopscotch2, considered Cortazar's masterpiece, is a revolutionary work in terms of narrative lineality Its chapters can !e read in two different orders, given !y the author #nd I think he wanted to e3plore the possi!ilities of writing playing not only with the words !ut with all the elements that he could alter as an author He 4uestions here rationality, identity, playing with the limits of narrativity &ut the !ook I actually want to talk a!out is 5inal del Juego 1"nd of the 6ame2 which was pu!lished after 0ayuela, and is divided in three !locks of short stories that apparently have not much in common !ut their metaliterary games I selected 7kl7lk of the short stories to comment on them I chosed the ones in which I think one can find in a special interesting way this metafiction #ccording to 5ernando #ngel 8oreno's theory, 1a spanish scholar2, there are three different kinds of prospective genres 1that would !e the genres in which reallity is altered somehow2 I'm going to e3plain them !efore starting with the analysis of the short stories cause I would like to enmarcar Cortazar's work first +he first genre would !e science fiction, in which we can find an altered reality !ut that follows a very strong inner logic and that tries to !e e3plained throughout the story appealing to science +he second genre would !e the traditional fantastic fiction, which from now on would !e called wonder literature, in this case, anything there's not an inner logic underlying this altered reality, and anything can happen appealing for e3ample to magic +he third genre, which is the genre I think Cortazar's works !elong is the 5antastic genre In this stories, the reality that is presented to us at first follows the rules of our own reality, !ut at some point, a fantastic event is introducing without any 9hat is called .unheimlich/ in german literature which is a feeling of uneasiness or distur!ance, would !e then, according to this theory, the conse4uence of the ontological shock that the reader e3periences So now, we have a connection !etween Cortazar and $oe, and also !etween Cortazar and :afka

Cortazar has !een usually compared with another great latin american writer, Jorge %uis &orges !ecause of their use of metafiction, !ut I think, Cort;zar would !e much closer to the modernist writers than &orges would !e

Julio Cortazar
Cita Borges

i i i i i
#rgentinian writer !orn in '(') 8oved to &russels in '('* &ack to "urope in '(,' In < pu!lished his masterpiece, 0ayuela 1Hopscotch2 Influenced !y the 5rench sym!olism, oriental philosophies and !y "dgar #lan $oe, whom he translated to spanish, now considered the !est translation of $oe ever made

Final del Juego (End of the Game)

$u!lished in '(, 5antastic genre 8odernist traces

#!out No se culpe a nadie 1kf7l2: In this short story, there's only one character, whose only action is to put on a sweeter +his suddenly turns into a struggling for getting out of it, and even his own arm which is already in the sleeve attacks him, loosing his identity #t the end of the story it is suggested that he 7umps over the window with the last sentence= And seven floors. #!out El rio 1+he 0iver2= +he main character who is the narrator of the story talks to a woman, her partner, in the form of an inner monologue #pparently, she has !een threatening him with drowning herself in the river, !ut he says that she is there in the !ed with him +he discourse changes gradually while he starts mentioning the water, suddenly she is there and she is soaking, they 7ust took her out of the water