“Axolotl”,
“La noche boca arriba”, “Las babas del diablo”, “Historias de cronopios y de
famas”, “Queremos tanto a Glenda” (en La
autopista del sur y otros cuentos. ed. Bernárdez)
Sobre el autor y la obra
-
Cortázar
o
Argentina,
1914-1984
o
Novelist, short story writer, and essayist
o
Known as one of the founders of the Latin
American Boom
o
Lived a lot of time abroad, such as in France
-
Work was heavily influenced by surrealism
Comps Example Question
Boom, realismo mágico, and lo real maravilloso; postboom and neobarroco; precursors; modernity (see
the “Modernismo since 1940” section of list) and the controversy over
postmodernity in Spanish America. Authors:
Borges, Huidobro, García Márquez, Rulfo, Carpentier Asturias, Cortázar, Allende,
Puig, Sarduy, Fuentes, Poniatowska, Valenzuela. Note: other movements
which are associated with some of these writers, such as surrealism (Cortázar)
or the use of popular culture and other genres in narrative (Puig), etc. Some
suggested, secondary readings: Rodríguez Monegal, Shaw, González Echevarría,
Hutcheon.
What Franco says (Intro to
Spanish-American Lit, Chapter 11)
-
Writing is international rather than national
(336)
-
Like other members of the avant-garde, he tended
to see women as the epitome of the passive, automatized reader (336)
-
Experimental writer
-
Concern with conventions and transgression, and
also with community (336)
-
He was established as the “guru of the younger
generation” (337)
-
His most famous novel – Rayuela – had interesting format, could choose various ways to read
it (337)
-
Consistently perpetuates gender stereotypes
(338)
-
Use of irony (338)
Themes / Important ideas
-
Influence of surrealism
o
Blur between fiction and reality, or dream and
reality
-
Experimental writing style (precursor to Boom)
o
Occasional stream-of-consciousness writing
o
Influence of surrealism
-
Metafiction
“Queremos tanto a
Glenda”
-
Summary/Basic idea: Group based around love for
a movie star: Glenda Garson. Diana (one
of the group members) mentions a mission.
They’re not satisfied with how movies are coming out. They start changing the movies to make them
better and to make her better. She
retires finally and they are excited because all of their work has been done,
all of the moved edited, but then she announces a comeback and they are
mad. They take care of her (kill her?)
to keep her legacy alive.
-
Wiki:
"El relato es muy simple: los amigos quieren tanto a Glenda que no pueden
tolerar el escándalo de que algunas de sus películas estén por debajo de la
perfección que todo gran amor postula y necesita, y que la mediocridad de
ciertos directores enturbie lo que sin duda usted había buscado mientras las
filmaba."
-
Begins: At that time, it was difficult to know
it. Many people go to the cinema, all watching (and loving) Gloria. (It's like
a little cult group that loves this actress). Mentions some of her clips
(includes tumultuosas lesbianas-which must have been risqué for then...)
Everyone has an opinion about the
movies. "....el perfeccionamieno de Glenda nos perfeccionaba y perfeccionaba
al mundo." They would not let her fall.
“Orientación de los gatos”
First person, Alana (his wife) and Osiris (his cat) look at him. Describes Alana as "una maravillosa estatua mutilada, un texto no terminado, un fragmento de cielo..." (all pieces of something). Alana seems to metamorphose into the different paintings, film strips (?) they're looking at. At the end, turns out that Alana and cat were actually just in a painting.
“Las babas del Diablo”
First person, Alana (his wife) and Osiris (his cat) look at him. Describes Alana as "una maravillosa estatua mutilada, un texto no terminado, un fragmento de cielo..." (all pieces of something). Alana seems to metamorphose into the different paintings, film strips (?) they're looking at. At the end, turns out that Alana and cat were actually just in a painting.
“Las babas del Diablo”
-
Summary/Basic idea: Story opens with: how am I
going to explain this?—the narrator asks.
Contemplation of various things follows.
Robert Michael goes out on a Sunday Morning. He sits in a park and sees a muchacho and a
blonde woman. The narrator is taking
pictures. He’s thinking that the woman
and the boy are lovers. He takes a
picture and the woman comes to yell at him.
The boy runs away. Then he
develops the pictures and sees that a man is in the background who was also
involved in the scene. Was the boy about
to be mugged? Murdered? He feels responsible and pissed at himself
for not noticing.
-
Begins
with doubt-"Nunca se sabrá cómo hay que contar esto...first or second
person..." (Also: babas are drool and the initial words of this
story sound like drool, dribbling words...) Second question: Why do I
have to tell this? (but we still don't know what this is) Story takes
place November 7th in Paris. Relativist:
"...o si sencillamente cuento una verdad que es solamente mi
verdad...." Mentions killing time ("combatiendo la nada")
with photography. Sees a little nervous boy, well dressed. (Narrator is seeing
the scene and interpreting it; repeats that he's trying to understand what's
happening).
-
Metafiction (questions writing/story-telling
process)
-
Some stream-of-consciousness moments
-
Odd perspective/narration – switches between I, we,
and sometimes third person
“Axolotl”
-
Summary/Basic idea: Narrator goes to the
aquarium a lot to look at the Axolotls. They
are a type of larva. He describes the
creature—its quietness, eyes of gold, triangular shaped head. He imagines them imprisoned in their
bodies. He feels connected to them and
tortured. He sees himself in the take—he
has become one of them! He has switched
places with it and it is now in his body.
He says that now he’s just imagining being him. He’s imagining him writing a story about all
of this.
-
Site’s synopsis: The short story is told through
two windows of time: the past and the present. The narrator begins with a
succinct introduction of a period of his life in the recent past that has
seemingly revolutionized his identity: “now [he is] an axolotl”. He then
returns in time in a retelling of the circumstances under which he arrived at
that state. Biking leisurely in the Paris spring to Jardin des Plantes, he
introduces himself as a frequent visitor of the animals – as “friend of the
lions and panthers”. But on this particular day, his usual proclivities are no
longer satisfying and he surveys the aquarium without interest until he is
drawn by the axolotl exhibit. From this juncture on, the narrator is captivated
by these small aquatic animals. He starts going to the Jardin at least once per
day to the nine specimens and comes to connect with them on personal and
psychological levels. He depicts in extensive detail the features of one of the
axolotl, not only attributing to them humanistic features, but also in one
instance becoming one of them, as the point of view shifts perceptibly to
first-person plural. Eventually, it was clear that the fascination has become
an obsession. He simultaneously admires, pities, and fears them. The axolotl
become his confidantes and they, his; he finds himself empathizing with and
understanding them. By this point, the narrator has already descended too far
down the path that eventually leads him to an inability to distinguish his own
existence with that of the axolotl. He passes through the glass screen of the
display and becomes physically merged with the creature. The story ends with
the narrator speaking about himself in a third-person as an axolotl – “for good
now” – speculating the thoughts and desires of an old human acquaintance, in
whom the axolotl places hope that he will remember and write about them.
-
An interesting fact that relates to the story is
that axolotls are described as neotenous.[3]
Neoteny is often described as a "backward" step in evolution. This
backward step refers to the fact that axolotls were initially terrestrial, but
with time lost the ability to survive on land and reverted back into water,
gills and all.
In the story, the narrator also displays a certain type of neoteny. He begins life as a man, a complete terrestrial being with full human capabilities. However, through his obsession, he looses his human capacities and reverts into a lower state. The man in the story, in a bizarre play on evolution, finds it advantageous to devolve back into an aquatic being.
In the story, the narrator also displays a certain type of neoteny. He begins life as a man, a complete terrestrial being with full human capabilities. However, through his obsession, he looses his human capacities and reverts into a lower state. The man in the story, in a bizarre play on evolution, finds it advantageous to devolve back into an aquatic being.
-
It is hard to be certain whether Cortázar meant
for Axolotl to be interpreted as a realistic portrayal of a man who surrenders
to his insanity or as a fantastic tale of a man who goes through a
transformative experience and is reborn, perhaps both figuratively and
literally, as an aquatic amphibian. Perhaps one could combine the two
perspectives. Nevertheless, the ambiguity between the real and the unreal could
be viewed as the literary basis of the short story.
-
Themes of immobility, imprisonment, and
metamorphosis.
-
My little additions:
o
used to look at axolotl, now he is an axolotl. They
have Mexican, Aztec faces.
o
Used to have a Spanish name-> ajolote. Los rasgos antropomórficos de un mono
revelan el revés de lo que cree la mayoría. So, on the contrary...maybe
these things ARE close to humans. They are larvae...what will happen when they
grow? (from website, we know these things stay in larvae form). Then, he turns
into axolotl. Realizes he can still thing. Ends by imagining a person who will
write down this whole story.
o
Metafiction
o
Idea that the fiction we are seeing from the
outside becomes reality (blur between fiction and reality – typical of
surrealism)
La noche boca arriba- Wikipedia + my notes
-
Summary/Basic idea: The story opens with a motorcycle
accident—woman stopped in the road. The
police and ambulance come and take him to the ER. Then he goes into a dream sequence. He is in another world. He smells things in the dream, which is weird
because usually there are no smells in dreams.
In the dream the Aztecs are hunting for man. He is afraid.
Suddenly he is back in the hospital—he has a fever. He keeps alternating back and forth between
the two worlds. At the end, he can’t
close his eyes without going there. He is
going back and forth between the two worlds.
Now he sees the sacrificial knife and realizes that this is the reality
and the other (with the motorcycle) is just a dream.
-
Girl riding in moto through the city. Couldn't
prevent 'the accident' (Question to ponder: What other things in life are
unavoidable?) Taken "boca arriba" to farmacia then heads to hospital
in ambulance...This is all in a dreamlike state (though the narrator notes the
smell and fear made it feel real). Gets
fever in hospital. Hallucinates..."me salí de la calzada." olor a
guerra. Wakes up again and drinks water. Hands and feet are cuffed,
screaming (out of body experience). Someone is going to sacrifice him! Seems
like the hospital part is all just a dream...as he is really boca arriba
entre las hogueras.
-
WIKI:
Trata sobre un joven de una ciudad que al salir de un hotel. Tiene un accidente
en motocicleta por querer evitar el choque con una una mujer y es trasladado al
hospital. Mientras está en la camilla, cada cierto tiempo se queda dormido y
mientras duerme sueña que está en la selva de México durante las guerras
floridas huyendo de los Aztecas que quieren atraparlo para sacrificarlo. Luego
de varios sueños, en uno de ellos descubre que ya es un prisionero de los
aztecas y que está apunto de ser sacrificado. En ese momento desea despertar y
volver desesperadamente a la sala del hospital. Al final, descubre que el
verdadero sueño es el del accidente en motocicleta y el hospital y que la
realidad es en la que va a ser sacrificado en la selva de México por los
Aztecas. El personaje principal es el joven que sufre un accidente en
motocicleta y es trasladado a un hospital. Por otra parte también es un joven
que está a punto de ser asesinado para un sacrificio.
Se desarrolla en México ya que el personaje principal es una indio Moteca que huye de una tribu enemiga.
El relato transcurre durante las guerras floridas protagonizadas por los aztecas, durante los siglos anteriores a la Conquista de América. En esta guerra en vez de matar a sus enemigos en batalla, el objetivo era capturarlos y llevarlos vivos a su capital, donde los sacerdotes los sacrificaban sobre una de sus pirámides, lo ponían en una piedra "boca arriba" y les quitaban el corazón con un puñal de piedra. Era costumbre de los aztecas proveer prisioneros para los sacrificios que les hacían a sus dioses.
Se desarrolla en México ya que el personaje principal es una indio Moteca que huye de una tribu enemiga.
El relato transcurre durante las guerras floridas protagonizadas por los aztecas, durante los siglos anteriores a la Conquista de América. En esta guerra en vez de matar a sus enemigos en batalla, el objetivo era capturarlos y llevarlos vivos a su capital, donde los sacerdotes los sacrificaban sobre una de sus pirámides, lo ponían en una piedra "boca arriba" y les quitaban el corazón con un puñal de piedra. Era costumbre de los aztecas proveer prisioneros para los sacrificios que les hacían a sus dioses.
-
Idea of dream becoming reality, blur between
dream and reality (typical of surrealism)
Historias de Cronopios y de Famas
Wikipedia, background:
En este libro, sobre todo en la cuarta y última parte, Cortázar describe a los actores sociales de su época. La clase alta, la burguesía argentina de los años 50-60, es representada por los famas.
Existe en todo esto un juego con el sentido de las palabras, ya que la última parte tiene como subtítulo. Los famas eran seres alados que se encargaban de dispersar las malas noticias.
Los cronopios (de los cuales el escritor dejó claro que no tenían nada que ver con el tiempo, para evitar confusiones con el prefijo crono-), pueden ser entendidos como la clase media argentina de esa época. Quieren imitar a los famas, pero son mediocres; quieren que sus hijos sean de sangre de fama, pero los educan como cronopios. Eugenesia es un cuento que revela ese aspecto.
Mientras que los esperanzas representan las clases bajas de la sociedad, a la espera. Cabe recordar que la esperanza es lo único que queda dentro de la caja cuando escapan de ella los males en el mito de Pandora. Pero lo que es un mal es la espera, su apatía.
Mientras los famas bailan Tregua Tregua, los cronopios y los esperanzas bailan ESPERA, que es el baile de ellos, y se enojan mucho por las raras costumbres de los famas.
Little bits of notes from my reading:
I) Historia y aun incierta aparición, fase mitológica
Costumbres: fama dances, esperanzas tell him not to. Then, they beat him up. Cronopios surround the injured fama "y su soledad era menos amarga".
II) El baile de los famas. Cronopios (verdes, erizados, húmedos objetos)....here we see that these are stories with made up language, poetic even. Famas do everything 5 minutes late.
III) Viajes when famas go on trips, they're very organized, do surveys of potential trips. Cronopios are much less prepared and organized, yet they still have a good time. "Las esperanzas, sedentarias, se dejan viajar por las cosas y los hombres..." (symbolic language helps people to see themselves in descriptions of imaginary people.)
-famas carefully conserve their souvenirs after their trips, while cronopios just leave them around the house.
-Cronopios create "termómetro de vidas"
-Then, fama who is rich and uses and throws away pañuelos is asked by servant (who had been taking them out and keeping them) if these hankies are really meant to be thrown away. Fama calls her an idiot and says, "now, you'll wash them and I'll save money!"
In Comercio, when famas see that cronopios enjoy their factory, taking advantage of products they make, they close it.
Famas also feel really good about themselves when doing charity. Cronopios don't really give charity.
(In this collection, there are also circular stories, like "historia")
"Un fama descubrió que la virtud era un microbio." (between this mention and axolotl story, seems like Cortázar had some sort of interest in biology in his writing?)
-la cucharada estrecha...satire/metaphor about consuming virtue.
-cronopios don't want children b/c their babies insult parents. So, they always get famas to impregnant their women. But, nurture over nature, new cronopios turn out just the same.
-"inconvenientes en los servicios públicos" (reminds me of regional languages in Spain....
-famas are mad that cronopios begin broadcasting in Rumano so they assasinate them. Ironically, the fama masses had already lost trust in radio and had begun learning Rumano.
-funny story about cronopios houses who put lots of signs about "welcome guests" but ends with a sign that says "este cartel anula todos los anteriores."
-Lo particular y lo universal (seems like an absurd story about cronopio squeezing toothpaste)...about exploration....Though they find what they're actually looking for, cronopio reports that everything is going badly because he just wants a certain sandwich and he doesn't want the other kind.
-In "Pegue la estampilla", fama realized something is better than nothing, but cronopio only wants perfection for his love letter.
-Flor y cronopio: Cronopio wants to pick a flower but ends up playing with it, appreciating it, and resting with it. Then flower accepts it as like "one of them" (learning about others/accepting differences)
-Tortugas y cronopios: cute! Cronopio draws golondrinas on turtles because they know they like being speedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment