Poetry of the image in Buenos Aires: the narrative space of Julio Cortázar for Anthropophania in Rayuela

Abstract

This research raises the issue of one of the endemic recurrences of the Literary Criticism about Julio Cortázar’s work, wich is an arbitrary interpretation of Rayuela (Hopscotch): Through a transversal revision, I show how even the most outstanding critic or renown authors not only keep their analysis in the bound of Paris – that is to say, they not only emphasize the part of Rayuela that corresponds to the chapters grouped under the “Del lado de acá” section- but also they undermine the part about Buenos Aires and demean its characters.
In the current paper, Cortázar has the last word: every argument established stands on the conceptual framework traced by Julio Cortazar himself through his own work, specifically in Rayuela. That said, I bring forward four arguments that could restore the pre-eminence of the Buenos Aires side of Rayuela’s whole body, although it does not mean that it is to the detriment of Paris side: my purpose is to show how Cortázar set up the bases of the whole building that is Rayuela in these two space- time places, and in addition on all the other loose parts, which is the indeed nature of all Rayuela’s chapters.