Second Time Around: A critical re-evaluation of Julio Cortázar’s position in the Latin American literary canon

Abstract

This PhD thesis considers the various reasons for the decline in critical and commercial attention towards Julio Cortázar in the English-speaking world in the years following since his death in 1984. In acknowledging that Julio Cortázar is still considered to be and referenced as one of the ‘Big Four’ authors of the Latin American literary Boom of the 1960s, I argue that his current state of obscurity within the popular culture of the English-speaking world especially relative to other writers from Latin America such as Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel García Márquez, who were first translated into English at a similar point, has broader implications for the discipline of Latin American studies. This is especially important when considering that the situation is vastly different in Latin America itself, and in particular his native Argentina, where he has instead remained one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century. In this way, I propose that the irregular treatment of Cortázar as a representative of the Latin American literary canon is evidence of a broader schism in the field concerning the way that Latin America and its literature are conceived and thus that the revaluation of Cortázar’s reception in English-language criticism is a necessary step to better understanding of the literary and critical currents of the continent, and to address reductive streaks in the current field.