The philosophy of Heraclitus as thematic subtext of Julio Cortázar's 'All Fires the Fire' In an interview he gave a few months before his demise, Julio Cortázar identified two teachers from the Escuela Normal ‗Mariano Acosta' in Buenos Aires as defining influences on his intellectual career. Don Arturo Marasso, his professor of Greek and Spanish literature, was soon aware of Cortázar's literary vocation. He initiated the young Cortázar in ancient mythology, invited him to his home and gave the talented but poor student free access to his personal library. Marasso introduced him to Sophocles, taught him how to read Homer well, and made him appreciate the lyric poetry of Pindar. Under Marasso's influence he also read all the Platonic dialogues. His philosophy teacher, Vicente Fatone, a specialist of logic and epistemology, broadened his knowledge of ancient philosophy and made him read Aristotle. Cortázar recalls that the challenging Fatone inspired him to consider a career in philosophy. Although he did not have the temperament for systematic philosophy, he recalls: ‗Me fascinaba porque la filosofía te mete en lo fantástico, en lo metafísico, pero no tenía un temperamento para avanzar o sistematizar en el campo filosófico y la abandoné.' (Soriano 1983: 4) Heraclitus in the works of Cortázar Throughout his life and writings, Cortázar remained fascinated by classical culture. 1 He seems to have been particularly interested in a philosophical author whose fragments have been compared to the choral works of Pindar and who has been called ‗one of the most powerful 1 Two forthcoming articles by Aagje Monballieu study the importance of the classical tradition for Cortázar: ‗La vocación helenística de Julio Cortázar. Sus lecturas y su formación clásica en el Mariano Acosta (1929-1936)' Bulletin Hispanique 2012 and ‗Más que un amateur esclarecido. La afición de Julio Cortázar por la filosofía de Heráclito': on the presence of Heraclitus in his personal library, forthcoming in Neophilologus 2011. stylists not only of Greek Antiquity but of World Literature' (Kahn 1983: IX): Heraclitus of Ephesus (° ca. 540 B.C.). Cortázar owned several scholarly books on the philosophy of Heraclitus and it is even fair to say that he collected editions and translations of the Heraclitean fragments. His collection included editions of the original Greek next to Spanish, French and English translations by Battistini, Brun, Farré and others. His love for Heraclitus was also known to his friends: we know e.g. that his copy of Heraclitus by Philip Wheelwright (1959) was a gift from his friend the critic Ana María Hernández. 2 Heraclitus appears quite often in his writings: both in early and in very late publications. In a short essay published a few years before his death, ‗Un sueño realizado' (1980), 3 Cortázar mentions Le rayon vert by Jules Verne (1882) and he compares this natural phenomenon to the transformation of the elements as described by Heraclitus. 4 ‗Sobremesa' (Final del juego), published in 1964, has fragment DK 52 as its motto: ‗...
El eterno retorno de la mujer fatal en 'Circe'de Julio Cortázar eugenia houvenaghel aageje monballieu University of Ghent• Resumen estudiamos la protagonista del cuento 'Circe' a la luz de la rica tradición del arquetipo de la femme fatale. analizamos, primero, el personaje Delia mañara, que se construye a partir de fuentes variadas -artísticas e históricas, antiguas y modernas, bíblicas y paganas, europeas y americanas -sobre la mujer mortífera legendaria. argüiremos, después, que Cortázar inscribe dicho personaje complejo y contradictorio en la visión circular del tiempo de heráclito. la mujer fatal creada por Cortázar, de acuerdo con la teoría heraclitiana del eterno Retorno, vuelve a aparecer en todas las épocas, siendo a la vez idéntica y diferente, a la vez Circe, eva, Diana, the Siren, the spider woman y … Delia mañara. bajo esta perspectiva, proponemos una lectura heraclitiana del cuento: su protagonista simboliza el eterno Retorno de la femme fatale y encarna la unidad de lo múltiple. AbstractWe study the female protagonist of the tale 'Circe' within the rich tradition of the archetypical femme fatale. We first analyse the character Delia Mañara, constructed on the basis of various sources -artistic and historical, ancient and modern, biblical and pagan, european and american -about the legendary femme fatale. Second, we argue that this complex and contradictory character can be comprehended within the circular time vision of heraclitus. Cortázar created this fatal woman in line with the theory of the eternal Return. She appears in all epochs and is both identical to and different from Circe, eve, Diana, the Siren, the Spider Woman and … Delia mañara. From this perspective, we propose a heraclitian reading of the tale: the protagonist symbolizes the eternal Return of the femme fatale and has been constructed as the incarnation of unity within multiplicity.LUP_BHS85_5_09_Houvenaghel.indd 733 26/6/08 13:10:21
Proponemos un análisis arquetípico de “Circe” y “Ciao, Verona” de Cortázar, confrontando los personajes femeninos y las imágenes de la feminidad de ambos cuentos con los elementos asociados a la mujer mortífera arquetípica. Comprobamos, en primer lugar, que, mientras “Circe” ofrece una versión actualizada y urbanizada de la mujer fatal, “Ciao, Verona” regresa a los orígenes psicológicos de la tradición, representando la mujer como una amenaza para el mundo masculino. En segundo lugar, comprobamos que la mujer fatal de Cortázar es un personaje múltiple, en el que se combinan varias tradiciones a la vez, y que se convierte en un símbolo de la eterna repetición y renovación del arquetipo de la mujer fatal.
Julio Cortázar was extremely well read in ancient literature and philosophy. He collected editions and translations of Heraclitus and based the short story ‘Todos los fuegos el fuego’ (‘All Fires the Fire’) on his philosophy in which Fire steered the Universe. The enigmatic ‘obscure’ style of the Ephesian philosopher, his use of riddles and dark metaphors, his philosophy of language, and his philosophy of time (eternal recurrence) all fascinated Cortázar. He knew the Stoics ascribed the concept of ecpyrosis, final conflagration, to Heraclitus and he knew these ideas influenced Christian apocalyptic imagery and eschatological teachings. We argue that the metaphors and the experimental narrative of ‘All Fires the Fire’ (merging a modern story and a story set in Roman Antiquity, both ending in a final conflagration) are inspired by Heraclitus and by the Bible. This paper explores the interaction between the use Cortázar made of Heraclitus and the Christian traditions: the function of the biblical allusions (to Matthew 5:13; Revelation 22) he inserted in the story, to early Christian symbolism (the fish), and to an ancient Christian numerical riddle (888) on the name of Jesus taken from the Sibylline Oracles. In this way we hope to clarify his view of the reader as an intellectual accomplice of the author.1
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