Julio Cortázar & Naguib Mahfouz

Cortázar

Born August 26, 1914 in Brussels, Belgium

Buenos Aires (1918-1951) Father abandons family – Los Venenos

Mother selects readings – Jules Verne & begins imaginary writing

“Buenos Aires was some kind of punishment”

Cortázar Beginnings

"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)

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

Cortazar Life

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

Mahfouz

Cairo (hometown)

100 years from birth

2011 declared Mahfouz year

Commemoration

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”

Rayuela

Cortazar

Quest for identity - Hopscotch

Hidden reality behind the everyday lives

Existential trouble

ThemesMahfouz

Existentialism Stream of

Consciousness Modernism

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

Mahfouz Influences

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

Influences of Cortazar

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

“opened doors for five generations of Arabnovelists.”

Magical Realism