Cortázar

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Cortázar Beginnings

 Born August 26, 1914 in Brussels, Belgium  Buenos Aires (1918-1951)  Father abandons family – Los Venenos  Mother selects readings – Jules Verne & begins imaginary writing "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.“ (Cortázar in Plural)

“Buenos Aires was some kind of punishment”

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Cortazar Life

 1935 to 1945 - French Literature Teacher in Buenos Aires high schools  1951 – emigrates to France from opposition Juan Domingo Perón  First collection short stories Bestiary  Translated Robinson Crusoe & Edgar Allan Poe into Spanish under United Nations  Active in Latin American politics -visits Cuba in 1961 and Nicaragua in 1983

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Mahfouz

 Born in Cairo in 1911 Cairo is a huge influence on his works Published his first novel in 1939, published 10 more before Revolution of 1952 Strict Muslim Upbringing Stopped writing after this for several years Every work is political in nature Books banned in many Islamic countries for being blasphemous Assassination attempt

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Commemoration

 Cairo (hometown)  100 years from birth  2011 declared Mahfouz year

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Rayuela

 Rayuela (1966, Hopscotch) – masterpiece    Anti-novel using stream of consciousness with multiple endings Reflection of life in that protagonist desperately searching for his life's purpose in South America and Europe (Exstitiental??) Reader re-arrange chapters “Table of Instruction”

Cortazar  Quest for identity - Hopscotch  Hidden reality behind the everyday lives  Existential trouble

Themes

 Mahfouz  Existentialism  Stream of Consciousness  Modernism

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Mahfouz Influences

 Proust, Tolstoy, Chekov, Ibsen  Taha Hussein, Muhammed Husayn Haykal  Henri Bergson  Egyptian nationalism & politics  Socialism- Al-Khalili and New Cai  El-Muwaylili – Arabic novel

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Influences of Cortazar

 Jean Cocteau´s Opio  French Surrealism- sub-consciousness & imagery  Jules Verne (science fiction)  Edgar Allan Poe (translations)  James Joyce(stream of consciousness)  Borges- similar themes of fantasy/ perception of reality – Los Reyes

“opened doors for five generations of Arab novelists.”

Impacts

 Cortazar  Modern Egyptian/Middle Eastern Literature  Alaa Al Aswany  Bridged gap between Arabic literature and European and American traditions   Mahfouz Pioneer Latin Boom & magical realism genre  w/ Marquez & Carlos Fuentes Rayuela opened the door to linguistic innovation of Spanish language and influenced deeply Latin American writers

Magical Realism

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