Cortazar's Biography

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Julio Cortzar (1914-1984)

Argentine writer, one of the great masters of the fantastic short story, who has beencompared to Jorge Luis Borges. Many of Cortzar's stories follow the logic ofhallucinations and obsessions. Central themes in his work are the quest for identity, thehidden reality behind the everyday lives of common people, and the existential angst. Theauthor's debt to the French Symbolism and Surrealists has been demonstrated in a numberof studies. Unlike Borges, Cortzar became a political radical who was involved in anti-Peronist demonstrations and supported the Cuban revolution, Allende's Chile, andSandinista Nicaragua.

"No one can retell the plot of a Cortzar story; each one consists of determined words in adetermined order. If we try to summarize them, we realize that something precious hasbeen lost." (Jorge Luis Borges)

Julio Cortzar was born in Brussels, Belgium, of Argentine parents abroad on business.When he was four years old, his family returned to Buenos Aires, where he grew up in asuburb. Cortzar attended the Escuela Normal de Profesores Mariano Acosta, a teacherstraining college. In 1935 he received a degree as a secondary-level teacher. He studied thentwo years at the University of Buenos Aires and taught in secondary schools in Bolvar,Chivilcoy, and Mendoza. In 1944-45 he was a professor of French literature at theUniversity of Cuyo, Mendoza. He joined there a protest against Peron and was brieflyimprisoned. After his release he left his post at the university. From 1946 to 1948 he was adirector of a publishing company in Buenos Aires. He passed examinations in law andlanguages and worked then as a translator.

In 1951, in opposition to Peron's regime, Cortzar traveled to Paris, where he lived until hisdeath. In 1953 he married Aurora Bernrdez. They separated and Cortzar lived with CarolDunlop in later years. From 1952 he worked for UNESCO as a freelance translator. Hetranslated among others Robinson Crusoe and the stories ofEdgar Allan Poe into Spanish,Poe's influence is also seen in his work.

Los Reyes (1949) was Cortzar's earliest work of fantasy interest. The long narrative poemconstituted a meditation on the role and fate of the Minotaur in his labyrinth. Cortzar's firstcollection of short stories,Bestiario, appeared in 1951. It included 'Casa tomada' (A HouseTaken Over), in which a middle-aged brother and sister find that their house is invaded byunidentified people. The story was first published by Jorge Luis Borges in the magazinecalledLos Canales de Buenos Aires; Borges's sister illustrated it. However, Borges did notlike Cortzar as a novelist and once said: "He is trying so hard on every page to be original that itbecomes a tiresome battle of wits, no?"(Jorge Luis Borges, ed. by Richard Burgin, 1998)

--'They have taken over our section,' Irene said. The knitting had reeled off from her hands

and the yarn ran back toward the door and disappared under it. When she saw that theballs of yarn were on the other side, she dropped the knitting without looking at it.--'Did you have time to bring anything?' I asked hopelessly.


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--'No, nothing.'--We had what we had on. I remembered fifteen thousand pesos in the wardrobe in mybedroom. Too late now.(from 'A House Taken Over')

'Casa tomada' set the pattern for a typical Cortzar story - it begins in the real world, thenintroduces fantastic elements, which changes the rules of reality. In the title story a younggirl senses that a tiger is roaming through her house. Other collections followed: Final dejuego (1956),Las armas secretas (1959), Todos los fuegos el fuego (1966), Octaedro(1974), andAlguien que anda por ah(1977). 'Las Babas del Diablo' from Las ArmasSecretas was filmed in 1966 by Michelangelo Antonioni under the titleBlow-Up. InCortazr's story, set in Paris, the protagonist is Roberto Michael, an amateur photographer,who sees a teenage boy and a young woman on a square, and shoots the scene. He developsthe roll, enlarges the picture, and realizes that the woman was seducing the boy for a man ina car. The picture becomes Michael's life, he speaks of himself both in the fist person andthird persons in the story: ".... nobody really knows who is telling it, if I am I or whatactually occurred or what I'm seeing... or if, simply I'm telling a truth which is only mytruth..." Antonioni used in his film version the theme of appearance versus reality and

created around it a murder mystery, which he leaves open. Reality becomes in the filmmerely a subjective statement, "life itself is an illusion, a Dionysian celebration of maskedand anonymous revels." (Neil D. Isaacs inModern European Filmmakers and the Art of Adaptation, ed. byAndrew S. Horton and Joan Magretta, 1981)

"'It's like a waiting room, life is,' said the bald gentleman, carefully grinding out hiscigarette with his shoe and examining his hands as if he didn't know what to do with themnow; the elderly lady sighed a yes born of long years of agreeing, and put away her littlebottle just as the door at the end of the corridor opened and the other lady came out withthat look all the others envied, and an almost sympathetic goodbye when she got to the exit.'(from 'Second Time Around')

As a novelist Cortzar gained first attention withLos premios (1960), which appeared whenthe author was 46. The story centered on a group of people brought together when they wina mystery cruise in a lottery. The ship-of-fools becomes a microcosms of the world order.His masterpiece wasRayuela (1966, Hopscotch), an open-ended anti-novel, in which thereader is invited to rearrange the material. "The general idea behind Hopscotch, you see, is the proofof a failure and the hope of a victory. But the book doesn't propose any solution; it simply limits itself toshowing the possible paths one can take to knock down the wall, to see what's on the other side." (interviewfrom Evelyn Picon Garfield, Cortzar por Cortzar, 1978) The protagonist, Horacio Oliveira, is awriter who is surrounded by a circle of bohemian friends. After the the disappearance of LaMaga, his mistress, Oliveira returns to Buenos Aires where he works in odd jobs. He meets

his childhood friend, Traveler, with whom he operates an insane asylum, ending on theborder of insanity himself.

Oliveira seeks a new world-view outside Cartesian rationalism. Though he never succeeds,his quest is depicted with humor, superb imagery, and optimism. There are two narrativesections: chapters 1-36, which are set in Paris, and chapters 37-56, set in Buenos Aires. Thethird selection is entitled "Expendable Chapters." The hopscotch progress begins at chapter73. For this reading, led by the directions, the reader jumps forward and backward throughthe book.

Rayuela was intended to be a revolutionary novel. It opened the door to linguistic

innovation of Spanish language and influenced deeply Latin American writers. The idea fora book based on disconnected noted continued in 62: Modelo para armar (1968). Here the


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reader had less instructions to arrange the parts.Libro de Manuel (1973) focused on thepolitical condition of Latin America. In this case the various characters shuttle from amysterious Zone and the City according to Godgame-like instructions they cannotunderstand or disobey. The novel formed a manual for the child Manuel, a sort of collage ofpress clippings, and among others revealed torture techniques used by U.S. soldiers in theFar East and juxtaposed them to similar tortures suffered by Latin American politicalprisoners.

Cortzar visited Cuba after the revolution, and in 1973 he traveled in Argentina, Peru,Ecuador, and Chile. Cortzar became in the 1970s a member of the Second Russell Tribunalfor investigation of human rights abuses in Latin America. He also gave the Sandinistas theroyalties of some of his last books and helped financially the families of political prisoners.When the seven-year ban on his entry into Argentina was lifted he visited his home countryand Nicaragua in 1983.

In 1975 Cortzar was a visiting lecturer at the University of Oklahoma, and in 1980 he wasa lecturer at Barnard College in New York. In 1981 he acquired French citizenship.

Cortzar received numerous awards, including Mdicis Prize forLibro de Manuel in 1974and Rubn Daro Order of Cultural Independence in 1983. He died of leukemia in Paris onFebruary 12, 1984. Cortzar's friend Christina Peri Rossi later pondered in her book Yo yCortzar (2001) did the author die of AIDS instead of leukemia.

For further reading: Yo y Cortzar by Christina Peri Rossi (2001);Julio Cortzar: A Study ofthe Short Fiction by Ilan Stavans (1996);Hatful of Tigers by S. Ramirez (1995); Cortzar byEstela Cedola (1994);Julio Cortzar by Carmen Ortiz (1994);Julio Cortzar's Character Mosaicby Gordana Yovanovich (1991); Como leer a Julio Cortzar by Alicia H. Puleo (1990); Otroround, ed by Dale E. Carter (1988);La fascinacin de las palabras by Omar Prego (1985);Enbusca del unicornio by Jaime Alazraki (1983);Julio Cortzar, ed. by Pedro Lastra (1981); The

Novels of Julio Cortzar by Steven Boldy (1980); The Final Island, ed. by Ivan Ivask and Jaime

Alazraki (1978);Julio Cortzar by Evelyn Picon Garfield (1975) - See also: Argentine Hours byLauren Boyington; La Pgina de Julio Cortzar ;Last Love in Constantinople (1994) by MiloradPavic - Suom: Cortzarilta on suomennettu kokoelmat Salaiset aseet(1984),Bestiario (1999) jaTarinoita kronoopeista ja faameista (2001).

Selected works:

Presenca, 1938 (poems, under the pseudonym Julio Denis)Los reyes, 1949Bestiario, 1951 - suom. 1999Final del juego, 1956

Las armas secretas, 1959Los premios, 1960 - The WinnersHistorias de cronopios y de famas, 1962 - Cronopios and FamasRayuela, 1963 - HopscotchCuentos, 1964Todos los fuegos el fuego, 1966 - All Fires the Fire and Other StoriesEl perseguidor y otros cuentos, 1967End of the Game and Other Stories / Blow-Up and Other Stories, 1967 -film Blow-Up,based on the short story 'The Devil's Drivel', directed by Michelangelo Antonioni (1966), starring David

Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles

La vuelta al da en ochenta mundos, 1967 - Around the Day in Eighty WorldsCeremonias, 1968Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, 1968


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62: modelo para armar, 1968 - 62: a Model Kitltimo round, 1969Blow-Up and Other Stories, 1969 (trans. by Paul Blackburn)Literatura en la revoluxin y revolucin en la literatura, 1970 (with Oscar Collazosand Mario Vargas Llosa)Viaje alrededor de una mesa, 1970La isla a medioda y otros relatos, 1971

Pameos y meopas, 1971Prosa del observatorio, 1972 (with Antonio Glvez)Libro de Manuel, 1973 - A Manual for ManuelLa casilla de los Morelli y otros textos, 1973Octaedro, 1974Humanario, 1976Los relatos, 1976 (3 vols.)Alguien que anda por ah y otros relatos, 1977Un tal Lucas, 1979 - A Certain LucasA Change of Light and Other Stories, 1980

Pars: ritmos de una ciudad, 1981 - Paris: the Essence of an ImageQueremos tanto a Glenda, 1981 - We Love Glenda So Much and Other TalesDeshoras, 1983Los autonautas de la cosmopista, 1983 (with Carol Dunlop)Nicaragua, tan violentamente dulce, 1983 - Nicaraguan SketchesSalvo el crepsculo, 1984Argentina: aos de alambradas culturales, 1984Nada a Pehuaj, y Adis, Robinson, 1984Cortzar, 1985El examen, 1986Divertimento, 1986Policrtica en la hora de los chacales, 1987Fantomas contra los vampiras multinacionales, 1989Cartas a una pelirroja, 1990Cuentos completos (1945-1982), 1994Julio Cortzar: siete cuentos, 1994Obra crtica, 1994 (3 vols.)

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