Julio Cortzar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Julio Cortzar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Julio Cortzar, born Jules Florencio Cortzar[1] (American Spanish: [!xuljo kor!tasar] ( ); August 26, 1914 February 12, 1984), was an Argentine novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortzar inuenced an entire generation of Spanish-speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe. He has been called a "modern master of the short story."

Julio Florencio Cortzar

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 10 External links

Cortzar photographed by Sara Facio, in 1967. Born Died Pen name August 26, 1914 Brussels, Belgium 12 February 1984 (aged 69) Paris, France Julio Denis (in his rst two books)

Early life
Cortzar's parents, Julio Jos Cortzar and Mara Herminia Descotte, moved from Argentina in 1913 to Brussels, Belgium, where Cortzar was born on August 26, 1914 in the suburb of Ixelles.[2] At the time of his birth Belgium was occupied by the German troops of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Shortly thereafter the family moved to Zrich where Mara 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, rst in Zurich, then in Geneva, before moving for a short period to Barcelona. The Cortzars settled in Buenos Aires by the end of 1919.[3] Cortzar's parents divorced a few years after their return to Argentina.[2] Cortzar spent most of his childhood in Baneld, a suburb south of Buenos Aires, with his mother and younger sister. The home in Baneld, with its back
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julio_Cortzar

Occupation Writer, Translator, Novelist Nationality Argentine Genres Novel, story, poetry, prose poem, short story

Literary Latin American Boom, Postmodern movement literature Notable work(s) Notable award(s) Hopscotch Blow-up and Other Stories Prix Mdicis (France, 1974), Rubn Daro Order of Cultural Independence (Nicaragua, 1983)

Signature

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yard, was a source of inspiration for some of his stories.[4] Despite this, in a letter to Graciela M. de Sol 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.[5] His mother introducing her son most notably to the works of Jules Verne, whom Cortzar 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

Cortzar obtained a qualication as an elementary school teacher at the age of 18. He would later pursue higher education in philosophy and languages, although he never graduated from University of Buenos Aires. According to biographer Montes-Bradley, Cortzar 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.[6] He later repudiated this volume. In a 1977 interview for Spanish television he stated that publishing that book 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.[7] In 1944 he became professor of French literature at the National University of Cuyo. In 1949 he published a play, Los Reyes (The Kings), based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

Years in France
In 1951, Cortzar, who was opposed to the government of Juan Domingo Pern,[2] emigrated to France, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. Cortzar in his youth From 1952 onwards, he worked for UNESCO as a translator. The projects he worked on included Spanish renderings of Robinson Crusoe, Marguerite Yourcenar's novel Mmoires d'Hadrien, and stories by Edgar Allan Poe. He also came under the inuence of the works of Alfred Jarry and the Comte de Lautramont, and wrote most of his major works in Paris. 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.[8] Cortzar had three major relationships. First to Aurora Bernrdez, an Argentine translator, in 1953; they separated in 1967 when he became involved with the Lithuanian Ugn! Karvelis, whom he never formally married and who stimulated a great interest in politics in Cortzar.[9] He nally married the Canadian Carol Dunlop. After Carol's death in 1982 Aurora Bernrdez accompanied him in his nal illness and inherited the rights to all his works.[10] He died in Paris in 1984 and is interred in the Cimetire de Montparnasse. The cause of his death was reported to be leukemia though rumors reported that he had died from AIDS as a result of receiving a blood transfusion.[11][12]
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Work and legacy

Cortzar 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 lm Blowup (1966), which was inspired by Cortzar'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 photographer Sergio Larran during a shoot outside of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.[13] Puerto Rican novelist Giannina Braschi used Cortzar's story as a springboard for the chapter called "Blow-up" in her bilingual novel Yo-Yo Boing! (1998), which features scenes with Cortzar's Cortzar's grave in Montparnasse, Paris characters La Maga and Rocamadour.[14] Chilean novelist Roberto Bolao claimed Cortzar as a key inuence on his novel The Savage Detectives: "To say that I'm permanently indebted to the work of Borges and Cortzar is obvious."[15] Cortzar's story "La Autopista del Sur" ("The Southern Thruway") inuenced another lm of the 1960s, Jean-Luc Godard's Week End (1967).[16] Cortzar also published several novels, including 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, the novels have been translated into English by Gregory Rabassa. 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 Jos Lezama Lima, Giannina Braschi, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garca Mrquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa.[citation needed] Cortzar's use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness owes much to James Joyce[17] and other modernists,[citation needed] but his main inuences were Surrealism, the French Nouveau roman and the improvisatory aesthetic of jazz.[citation needed] This last interest is reected in the notable story "El perseguidor" ("The Pursuer"), which Cortzar based on the life of the bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker.[18] Cortzar also mentions Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet several times in Hopscotch.[19] Cortzar's rst wife, Aurora Bernrdez, translated Durrell into Spanish while Cortzar was writing the novel. Cortzar also published poetry, drama, and various works of non-ction. He also translated Edgar Allan Poe's 1838 novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket into Spanish as Narracion 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.

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In Buenos Aires, a school, a public library, and a square in the neighbourhood of Palermo carry Cortzar's name. The square is particularly well known as the centre of a trendy and bohemian area with an important nightlife (sometimes referred to as "Plaza Serrano" or "Palermo Soho"). Duke University Press published a literary journal called Hopscotch: A Cultural Review, named after Cortzar's novel. Cortzar is mentioned and spoken highly of in Rabih Alameddine's novel, Koolaids: The Art of War, which was published in 1998. Cortzar was also mentioned in Daniel Levin Becker's novel, Many Subtle Channels as one of the few people to have declined an invitation to the Oulipo.[20]

Books
Axolotl Presencia (1938) Los reyes (1949) El examen (1950, rst 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 da en ochenta mundos) (1967) 62: A Model Kit (62/modelo para armar) (1968) La noche boca arriba (1968) Last Round (ltimo Round) (1969) Prosa del Observatorio (1972) Libro de Manuel (1973) Octaedro (1974) Fantomas contra los vampiros multinacionales (1975) Alguien anda por ah (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 Andrs Fava (Diario de Andrs Fava) (1995) Adis Robinson (1995) Save Twilight (1997) Cartas (Three volumes, 2000; expanded version in ve volumes, 2012) Papeles inesperados (2009)
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Cartas a los Jonquieres (2010)

See also
tat second Sophie Bohdan

References
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. ^ Montes-Bradley, Eduardo. "Cortzar sin barba". Editorial Debate. Random House Mondadori. p.35 Madrid. 2005. ^ a b c Cortzar sin barba, by Eduardo Montes-Bradley. Random House Mondadori, Editorial Debate, Madrid, 2004 ^ Montes-Bradley, Eduardo. "Cortzar sin barba". Editorial Debate. Random House Mondadori. p.110 Madrid. 2005. ^ Baneld is mentioned in the short story "Conducta en los velorios" (http://www.literatura.org/Cortzar/Conducta.html) from Historias de cronopios y de famas. ^ Julio Cortzar - A fondo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeaaxOrC8nw#t=5m51s) TVE 1977 ^ Conversaciones con Cortzar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSJoWdZZ5m8) Omar Prego, Muchnik Editores, 1985 (p.33) ^ Julio Cortzar - A fondo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeaaxOrC8nw) TVE 1977 ^ [1] (http://www.kirjasto.sci./cortaz.htm) ^ Mario Goloboff (1998). "Chap. 11: De otros lados". Julio Cortzar - La biografa. pp. 170174. ISBN 950-731205-6. ^ Las cartas de Cortzar, (http://www.elmundo.es/america/2012/07/15/argentina/1342361857.html) article in the newspaper El Mundo (Madrid) dated 15 July, 2012. ^ Una nueva biografa sostiene que Cortzar habra muerto de sida (http://edant.clarin.com/diario/2001/06/07/s04001.htm) clarin.com, 7.06.2001 ^ Peri Rossi: Cortzar muri de sida por una transfusin, (http://www.abc.es/20090125/cultura-cultura/perirossi-cortazar-murio-20090125.html) article in the newspaper ABC from 25 January, 2009. ^ post (2012-01-24). "Fallece Sergio Larran, el mtico fotgrafo chileno que renunci al mundo | Cultura" (http://www.latercera.com/noticia/cultura/2012/02/1453-429366-9-fallece-sergio-larrain-el-mitico-fotografo-chilenoque-renuncio-al-mundo.shtml). La Tercera. Retrieved 2012-02-09. ^ Debra A. Castillo, editor, Redreaming America: Toward a Bilingual American Culture, "Language Games," by Ilan Stavans, pages 172-186,SUNY, New York, 2005. ^ Roberto Bolao, Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles, and Speeches, 1998-2003, trans. Natasha Wimmer, New York: New Directions, 2011, 353. ^ Jean Franco, "Comic Stripping: Cortzar 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. ^ Julio Cortzar y James Joyce (http://sisbib.unmsm.edu.pe/bibvirtual/publicaciones/alma_mater/2000_n1819/julio_cortazar.htm) ^ Doris Sommer, "Grammar Trouble for Cortzar", in Proceed with Caution, When Engaged by Minority Writing in the Americas, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 211. ^ Sligh, Charles. "Reading the Divergent Weave A Note and Some Speculations on Durrell and Cortzar." [Deus Loci: The Lawrence Durrell Journal] NS 6 (1998): 118-32. ^ Becker, Levin (2012). Many Subtle Channels. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 197200. ISBN 9780674065772.

14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

Further reading
English Julio Cortzar (Modern Critical Views). Bloom, Harold, 2005
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Schmidt-Cruz, Cynthia (2004). Mothers, Lovers, and Others: the short stories of Julio Cortzar. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-5955-3. Julio Cortzar (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 Cortzar (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 Cortzar. Moran, Dominic, 2000 Critical Essays on Julio Cortzar. Alazraki, Jaime, 1999 Alonso, Carlos J. (1998). Julio Cortzar: new readings. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-45210-6. Stavans, Ilan (1996). Julio Cortzar: a study of the short ction. New York: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-8293-1. The Politics of Style in the Fiction of Balzac, Beckett, and Cortzar. Axelrod, Mark, 1992 Writing at Risk: Interviews in Paris With Uncommon Writers. Weiss, Jason, 1991 Rodrguez-Luis, Julio (1991). The Contemporary Praxis of the Fantastic: Borges and Cortzar. New York: Garland. ISBN 978-0-8153-0101-1. Yovanovich, Gordana (1991). Julio Cortzar's Character Mosaic: reading the longer ction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-5888-1. Carter, E. Eugene (1986). Julio Cortzar: Life, Work and Criticism. Fredericton, Canada: York Press. ISBN 978-0-919966-52-9. Peavler, Terry J. (1990). Julio Cortzar. Boston: Twayne. ISBN 0-8057-8257-5. Boldy, Steven (1980). The Novels of Julio Cortzar. 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). Cortzar sin barba. Madrid: Random House Mondadori. pp. 394 Hard Cover. ISBN 84-8306-603-3. Imagen de Julio Cortzar. Claudio Eduardo Martyniuk, 2004 Julio Cortzar desde tres perspectivas. Luisa Valenzuela, 2002 Otra or amarilla: antologa: homenaje a Julio Cortzar. Universidad de Guadalajara, 2002 Yo y Cortzar. Christina Perri Rossi, 2001 Julio Cortzar. Cristina Peri Rossi, 2001 Julio Cortzar. Alberto Coust, 2001 La mirada recproca: estudios sobre los ltimos cuentos de Julio Cortzar. Peter Frhlicher, 1995 Hacia Cortzar: aproximaciones a su obra. Jaime Alazraki, 1994 Julio Cortzar: mundos y modos. Sal Yurkivich, 1994 Tiempo sagrado y tiempo profano en Borges y Cortzar. Zheyla Henriksen, 1992 Cortzar: el romntico en su observatorio. Rosario Ferr, 1991 Lo neofantstico en Julio Cortzar. Julia G Cruz, 1988 Los Ochenta mundos de Cortzar: ensayos. Fernando Burgos, 1987 En busca del unicornio: los cuentos de Julio Cortzar. Jaime Alazraki, 1983 Teora y prctica del cuento en los relatos de Cortzar. Carmen de Mora Valcrcel, 1982 Julio Cortzar. Pedro Lastra, 1981 Cortzar: metafsica y erotismo. Antonio Planells, 1979 Es Julio Cortzar un surrealista?. Evelyn Picon Gareld, 1975 Estudios sobre los cuentos de Julio Cortzar. David Lagmanovich, 1975 Cortzar y Carpentier. Mercedes Rein, 1974 Los mundos de Julio Cortzar. Malva E Filer, 1970
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Filmography
La Cifra Impar", 1960. Feature lm by Manuel Antin, based on "Letters from Mother". Circe", 1963. Feature lm by Manuel Antin, based on "Circe". Script by Manuel Antin and Julio Cortzar. El Perseguidor", 1963. Feature lm by Osias Wilenski, based on "El perseguidor". Intimidad de los Parques", 1965. Feature lm by Manuel Antin, based on "El Idolo de las cicladas". Blow Up", 1966. Feature lm by Michelangelo Antonioni, based on "Las Babas del diablo". Cortzar, 1994. Documentary directed by Tristn Bauer. Cortzar, apuntes para un documental, documentary. Eduardo Montes-Bradley (Director), Soledad Liendo (Producer). Theatrical release 2002. DVD Release 2007. Grafti, 2005. Short movie based on Julio Cortzars short story "Grafti". Directed by Pako Gonzlez. [2] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IoYPIvMye4) "Grafti", 2006, Short movie based on Julio Cortzars short story "Grafti". Directed by Vano Burduli [3] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947013/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1a)[4] (http://vimeo.com/25805971) "Mentiras Piadosas" -Made Up Memories-, 2009. Feature lm by Diego Sabans, based on the shortstory "The health of the Sick" by Julio Cortzar.

External links
Works by Julio Cortzar on Open Library at the Internet Archive Works about Julio Cortzar (http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79-38532) in libraries (WorldCat catalog) Jason Weiss (Fall 1984). "Julio Cortazar, The Art of Fiction No. 83" (http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2955/the-art-of-ction-no-83-julio-cortazar). Paris Review. Julio Cortzar at kirjasto.sci. (http://www.kirjasto.sci./cortaz.htm) Julio Cortzar Collection (Finding Aid) - Princeton University Library Manuscripts Division [5] (http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?eadid=C0888&kw=American%20literature) Julio Cortzar: An Argentinean Master of Anti-novel and Experimental Literature (http://www.yementimes.com/defaultdet.aspx?SUB_ID=25158) Books and texts written by Julio Cortzar (http://www.kronhela.com.ar/jc) A translated excerpt from Prose from the Observatory (http://www.guernicamag.com/poetry/2269/cortazar_1_15_11/) Julio Cortzar interview 1979 (http://escritorasunidas.blogspot.com/2011/08/julio-cortazar-en-micorazon-america.html) Julio Cortzar Artist bio and exhibitions on ArtDiscover (http://www.artdiscover.com/en/artists/juliocortazar-id1638?SUB_ID=25158) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julio_Cortzar&oldid=587822804" Categories: 1914 births 1984 deaths Julio Cortzar Writers from Paris People from Brussels Argentine people of French descent University of Buenos Aires alumni Argentine novelists Argentine short story writers Argentine translators Translators of Edgar Allan Poe Postmodern writers Magic realism writers Prix Mdicis tranger winners Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery This page was last modied on 26 December 2013 at 23:58. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
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