Prix Médicis (France, 1974), Rubén Darío Order of Cultural Independence (Nicaragua, 1983)
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Julio Cortázar, born Julio Florencio Cortázar[1]American Spanish:[ˈxuljo koɾˈtasaɾ](listen); (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984) was an Argentine 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.
The Latin American Boom was a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s when the work of a group of relatively young Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world. The Boom is most closely associated with Julio Cortázar of Argentina, Carlos Fuentes of Mexico, Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, and Gabriel García Márquez of Colombia. Influenced by European and North American Modernism, but also by the Latin American Vanguardia movement, these writers challenged the established conventions of Latin American literature. Their work is experimental and, owing to the political climate of the Latin America of the 1960s, also very political. "It is no exaggeration," critic Gerald Martin writes, "to state that if the Southern continent was known for two things above all others in the 1960s, these were, first and foremost, the Cuban Revolution and its impact both on Latin America and the Third World generally, and secondly, the Boom in Latin American fiction, whose rise and fall coincided with the rise and fall of liberal perceptions of Cuba between 1959 and 1971."
Julio Cortázar was born on August 26, 1914, in Ixelles,[2] a municipality of Brussels, Belgium. According to biographer Miguel Herráez, his parents, Julio José Cortázar and María Herminia Descotte, were Argentine citizens, and his father was attached to the Argentine diplomatic service in Belgium.[3]
Ixelles is one of the nineteen municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium.
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region and the Walloon Region. Brussels is the most densely populated and the richest region in Belgium in terms of GDP per capita. It covers 161 km2 (62 sq mi), a relatively small area compared to the two other regions, and has a population of 1.2 million. The metropolitan area of Brussels counts over 2.1 million people, which makes it the largest in Belgium. It is also part of a large conurbation extending towards Ghent, Antwerp, Leuven and Walloon Brabant, home to over 5 million people.
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe. It is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of 30,688 square kilometres (11,849 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.4 million. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi and Liège.
At the time of Cortázar's birth, Belgium was occupied by the German troops of Kaiser Wilhelm II. After German troops arrived in Belgium, Cortázar and his 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 Zürich, then Geneva, before moving for a short period to Barcelona. The Cortázars settled outside of Buenos Aires by the end of 1919.[4]
Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918 shortly before Germany's defeat in the First World War. He was the eldest grandchild of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe, most notably his first cousins King George V of the United Kingdom and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia.
Zürich or Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. The municipality has approximately 409,000 inhabitants, the urban agglomeration 1.315 million and the Zürich metropolitan area 1.83 million. Zürich is a hub for railways, roads, and air traffic. Both Zürich Airport and railway station are the largest and busiest in the country.
Geneva is the second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous city of the Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.
Cortázar's father left when Julio was six, and the family had no further contact with him.[5] Cortázar spent most of his childhood in Banfield, 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.[6] 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. 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".
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French novelist, poet, and playwright.
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.[7] 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, using the pseudonym of Julio Denis, he self-published a volume of sonnets, Presencia,[8] which he later repudiated, saying in a 1977 interview for Spanish television 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.[9] In 1944, he became professor of French literature at the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza, but owing to political pressure from Peronists, he resigned the position in June 1946. He subsequently worked as a translator and as director of the Cámara Argentina del Libro, a trade organization.[10] In 1949 he published a play, Los Reyes (The Kings), based on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. In 1980, Cortázar delivered eight lectures at the University of California, Berkeley.[11]
The University of Buenos Aires is the largest university in Argentina and the second largest university by enrollment in Latin America. Founded on August 12, 1821 in the city of Buenos Aires, it consists of 13 departments, 6 hospitals, 10 museums and is linked to 4 high schools: Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini, Instituto Libre de Segunda Enseñanza and Escuela de Educación Técnica Profesional en Producción Agropecuaria y Agroalimentaria.
Eduardo Montes-Bradley is an award-winning documentarian, and author, best known for his biographical work on Julian Bond, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Rita Dove, and James Monroe. Montes-Bradley’s documentaries have been awarded at domestic and international film festivals, and are incorporated in the syllabus of academic courses,. Montes-Bradley’s work is produced in Charlottesville by Heritage Film Project.
Chivilcoy Partido is a partido in the northern area of Buenos Aires Province in Argentina.
Years in France
In 1951, Cortázar emigrated to France, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life, though he traveled widely. From 1952 onwards, he worked intermittently for UNESCO as a translator. He 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]
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris. Its declared purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through educational, scientific, and cultural reforms in order to increase universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter. It is the successor of the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction between translating and interpreting ; under this distinction, translation can begin only after the appearance of writing within a language community.
Saignon is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. The nearest town is Apt.
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 1968[13] 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,[14] although his political sensibilities had already been awakened by a visit to Cuba in 1963, the first of multiple trips that he would make to that country throughout the remainder of his life. He later married 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.[15][16]
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.[17][18]
Works
Cortázar photographed in Buenos Aires in December 1983, when he returned after 10 years of exile in France
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; it was later re-titled Blow-up and Other Stories. 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 Divertimento, though written before 1960, only appeared posthumously.
Cortázar also published poetry, drama, and various works of non-fiction. In the 1960s, working with the artist José Silva, he created two almanac-books or libros-almanaque,La vuelta al día en ochenta mundos and Último Round, which combined various texts written by Cortázar with photographs, engravings, and other illustrations, in the manner of the almanaques del mensajero that had been widely circulated in rural Argentina during his childhood.[23] One of his last works was a collaboration with 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. As a translator, he completed Spanish-language renderings of Robinson Crusoe, Marguerite Yourcenar's novel Mémoires d'Hadrien, and the complete prose works of Edgar Allan Poe.[24]
Influence and legacy
Cortázar's grave in Montparnasse, Paris
Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blowup (1966) was inspired by Cortázar's story "Las babas del diablo", which in turn was based on a photograph taken by Chilean photographer Sergio Larraín during a shoot outside of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.[25] Cortázar's story "La autopista del sur" ("The Southern Thruway") influenced another film of the 1960s, Jean-Luc Godard's Week End (1967).[26] The filmmaker Manuel Antín has directed three films based on Cortázar stories, Cartas de mamá, Circe and Intimidad de los parques.[27]
Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño cited 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."[28]
Puerto Rican novelist Giannina Braschi used Cortázar's story "Las babas del diablo" 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.[29] Cortázar is mentioned and spoken highly of in Rabih Alameddine's 1998 novel, Koolaids: The Art of War.
North American novelist Deena Metzger cites Cortázar as co-author of her novel Doors: A Fiction for Jazz Horn,[30] written twenty years after his death.
In Buenos Aires, a school, a public library, and a square in the Palermo neighborhood carry Cortázar's name.
Books
Novels
Divertimento (1949, first published in 1986)
El examen(Final Exam) (1950, first published in 1985)
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. ISBN978-0-7914-5955-3.
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. ISBN978-0-415-94013-9.
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 on YouTube, 2005. Short movie based on Julio Cortázar's short story "Graffiti". Directed by Pako González.
Graffiti, 2006. Short movie based on Julio Cortázar's short story "Graffiti". Directed by Vano Burduli
"Mentiras Piadosas" (released in English as Made Up Memories), 2009. Feature film by Diego Sabanés, based on the short-story "The Health of the Sick" and other short stories by Julio Cortázar.
Osvaldo Soriano was an Argentine journalist and writer.
Argentine literature, i.e. the set of literary works produced by writers who originated from Argentina, is one of the most prolific, relevant and influential in the whole Spanish speaking world, with renowned writers such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Leopoldo Lugones and Ernesto Sabato.
José Donoso Yáñez was a Chilean writer. He lived most of his life in Chile, although he spent many years in self-imposed exile in Mexico, the United States (Iowa) and mainly Spain. Although he had left his country in the sixties for personal reasons, after 1973 he said his exile was also a form of protest against the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. He returned to Chile in 1981 and lived there until his death.
Juan Villoro is a Mexican writer and journalist. Son of philosopher Luis Villoro. He has been well known among intellectual circles in Mexico, Latin America and Spain for years, but his success among a wider readership has grown since receiving the Herralde Prize for his novel El testigo.
The Premio Planeta de Novela is a Spanish literary prize, awarded since 1952 by the Spanish publisher Grupo Planeta to an original novel written in Spanish (Castilian). It is one of about 16 literary prizes given by Planeta.
Sergio Chejfec is an Argentine Jewish writer. He was born in Buenos Aires in 1956. Chejfec has published eighteen books, including novels, essays, short stories, and a poetry collection. From 1990 to 2005 he lived in Venezuela, where he published Nueva sociedad, a journal of politics, culture and the social sciences. He currently lives in New York City and is Distinguished Writer in Residence in the M.F.A. Creative Writing program in Spanish at New York University.
The Xavier Villaurrutia Award is a prestigious literary prize given in Mexico, to a Latin American writer published in Mexico. Founded in 1955, it was named in memory of Xavier Villaurrutia.
Intimidad de los parques is a 1965 Argentine film directed by Manuel Antín. Like Antín's film Circe, it is based on a short story by Antín's compatriot Julio Cortázar. Cortázar was bitterly disappointed in the film and expressed his sentiments in a pair of letters to Antín written in March and April 1965.
Libro de Manuel is a novel by Julio Cortázar, first published in 1973. It was later translated into English by Gregory Rabassa and published in the US as A Manual for Manuel.
Carol Dunlop was a Canadian writer, translator, activist and photographer. She is best known for being the co-author, with her husband the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, of the book The Autonauts of the Cosmoroute (1982).
Pablo Rojas Paz was an Argentine writer born in Tucumán. He published essays, poetry, short stories, novels and biographies. For his short story collection El patio de la noche he was awarded with the National Prize of Literature, in 1940.
Manuel Antín is an Argentine film director and screenwriter.
Pablo Luna Carné was a Spanish composer. His best-known composition is the aria "De España vengo" from the zarzuela El niño judío.
Miguel Donoso Pareja was an Ecuadorian writer and 2006 Premio Eugenio Espejo Award-winner.
Eduardo Varas is an Ecuadorian novelist, musician and journalist, currently living in Quito.
Miguel Francisco Gutiérrez Correa was a Peruvian writer.
Manuel Alfonseca is a Spanish writer and university professor. He is the son of the painter and sculptor Manuel Alfonseca Santana.
Eduardo Sacheri is an Argentine writer and professor of History, graduated in the National University of Luján. He is best known for his novel La pregunta de sus ojos which became the basis for the Oscar-winning film El secreto de sus ojos and its American remake. Sacheri co-wrote the film's script in collaboration with its director Juan Jose Campanella. Sacheri and Campanella were also the screenwriters of the animation film Underdogs. He also published a number of short stories, such as Esperándolo a Tito y otros cuentos de fútbol and Lo raro empezó después.
References
↑ Montes-Bradley, Eduardo. "Cortázar sin barba". Editorial Debate. Random House Mondadori. p. 35, Madrid. 2005.
↑ Cortázar sin barba, by Eduardo Montes-Bradley. Random House Mondadori, Editorial Debate, Madrid, 2004
↑ Herráez, Miguel. Julio Cortázar, Una Biografía Revisada Alrevés, 2011 ISBN9788415098034 p. 25
↑ Montes-Bradley, Eduardo. "Cortázar sin barba". Editorial Debate. Random House Mondadori, p. 110, Madrid, 2005.
↑ Herráez, Miguel. Julio Cortázar, Una Biografía Revisada Alrevés, 2011, ISBN9788415098034, pp. 38 & 45,
↑ 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.
↑ Herráez, Miguel. Julio Cortázar, Una Biografía Revisada Alrevés, 2011, ISBN9788415098034, p. 242.
↑ 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.
↑ Roberto Bolaño, Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles, and Speeches, 1998-2003, trans. Natasha Wimmer, New York: New Directions, 2011, 353.
↑ Debra A. Castillo, editor, Redreaming America: Toward a Bilingual American Culture, "Language Games," by Ilan Stavans, pp. 172-186, SUNY, New York, 2005.
↑ Deena Metzger, Doors: A Fiction for Jazz Horn, Red Hen Press, Pasadena CA, 2004
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