Moving Through Paris: The Discontinuous Forms of Julio Cortázar’s 'Rayuela' (1963) and Luisa Futoransky’s 'De Pe a Pa' (1986)

This essay examines the way in which two late twentieth-century Latin American novelists address movement through the city of Paris. Building on existing work by Julie Jones (1998), Jason Weiss (2003), Axel Gasquet (2007) and especially Marcy E. Schwartz (1999), this project moves beyond a genealog...

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Main Author: Iris Pearson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Latin American Research Commons 2021-11-01
Series:Latin American Literary Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://account.lalrp.net/index.php/lasa-j-lalr/article/view/234
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author Iris Pearson
author_facet Iris Pearson
author_sort Iris Pearson
collection DOAJ
description This essay examines the way in which two late twentieth-century Latin American novelists address movement through the city of Paris. Building on existing work by Julie Jones (1998), Jason Weiss (2003), Axel Gasquet (2007) and especially Marcy E. Schwartz (1999), this project moves beyond a genealogy of Latin American writers in Paris towards a conception of the relationship between narrative form and depictions of urban navigation. It proposes that Julio Cortázar in Rayuela (1963) and Luisa Futoransky in De Pe a Pa (1986) enact a mode of movement through the discontinuous and episodic forms of their novels, and that the contrast between their depictions of movement, and particularly their depictions of the relationship between fragmentation and continuity within this movement, can be most clearly understood along the axis of gender. That is, while for Oliveira in Rayuela movement through the city is largely uninterrupted and can preserve at least an illusion of fluidity, for Laura in De Pe a Pa the woman’s movement through Paris is always discontinuous, difficult and even dangerous. Futoransky revises that earlier male writer’s formulation of movement to draw attention to a masculine complacency which organises Rayuela and to propose a new model for female urban navigation.
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spelling doaj.art-d1e6b160779049b9a1df77bf3e4dacdf2023-10-19T14:48:14ZengLatin American Research CommonsLatin American Literary Review2330-135X2021-11-01489710.26824/lalr.234Moving Through Paris: The Discontinuous Forms of Julio Cortázar’s 'Rayuela' (1963) and Luisa Futoransky’s 'De Pe a Pa' (1986)Iris Pearson0University of Oxford This essay examines the way in which two late twentieth-century Latin American novelists address movement through the city of Paris. Building on existing work by Julie Jones (1998), Jason Weiss (2003), Axel Gasquet (2007) and especially Marcy E. Schwartz (1999), this project moves beyond a genealogy of Latin American writers in Paris towards a conception of the relationship between narrative form and depictions of urban navigation. It proposes that Julio Cortázar in Rayuela (1963) and Luisa Futoransky in De Pe a Pa (1986) enact a mode of movement through the discontinuous and episodic forms of their novels, and that the contrast between their depictions of movement, and particularly their depictions of the relationship between fragmentation and continuity within this movement, can be most clearly understood along the axis of gender. That is, while for Oliveira in Rayuela movement through the city is largely uninterrupted and can preserve at least an illusion of fluidity, for Laura in De Pe a Pa the woman’s movement through Paris is always discontinuous, difficult and even dangerous. Futoransky revises that earlier male writer’s formulation of movement to draw attention to a masculine complacency which organises Rayuela and to propose a new model for female urban navigation. https://account.lalrp.net/index.php/lasa-j-lalr/article/view/234CortázarFutoranskyParisMovementFragmentGender
spellingShingle Iris Pearson
Moving Through Paris: The Discontinuous Forms of Julio Cortázar’s 'Rayuela' (1963) and Luisa Futoransky’s 'De Pe a Pa' (1986)
Latin American Literary Review
Cortázar
Futoransky
Paris
Movement
Fragment
Gender
title Moving Through Paris: The Discontinuous Forms of Julio Cortázar’s 'Rayuela' (1963) and Luisa Futoransky’s 'De Pe a Pa' (1986)
title_full Moving Through Paris: The Discontinuous Forms of Julio Cortázar’s 'Rayuela' (1963) and Luisa Futoransky’s 'De Pe a Pa' (1986)
title_fullStr Moving Through Paris: The Discontinuous Forms of Julio Cortázar’s 'Rayuela' (1963) and Luisa Futoransky’s 'De Pe a Pa' (1986)
title_full_unstemmed Moving Through Paris: The Discontinuous Forms of Julio Cortázar’s 'Rayuela' (1963) and Luisa Futoransky’s 'De Pe a Pa' (1986)
title_short Moving Through Paris: The Discontinuous Forms of Julio Cortázar’s 'Rayuela' (1963) and Luisa Futoransky’s 'De Pe a Pa' (1986)
title_sort moving through paris the discontinuous forms of julio cortazar s rayuela 1963 and luisa futoransky s de pe a pa 1986
topic Cortázar
Futoransky
Paris
Movement
Fragment
Gender
url https://account.lalrp.net/index.php/lasa-j-lalr/article/view/234
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