‘Fantasies of Catastrophe’: Politics and Race in the Early Novels of Julio Cortázar

Abstract

This paper examines politics and race in the early novels of Julio Cortázar - those written before Rayuela (1963), sometimes called his ‘Argentine trilogy’, and published after the author’s death. Despite Cortázar’s later public statements about the importance of an author’s engagement with politics, it is the analytical acumen in the realist aspects of these often fantastical novels, rather than a commitment to a stance, or a political message, that ensures the continued potency of his works as political fictions. Furthermore, recent critical investigations of race and racism in Argentina deepen our understanding of the author’s politics through reference to these questions. Cortázar admitted later in life that his former self shared many of the prejudices of his narrators and characters. We aim to nuance Beckman’s recent assertion that Cortázar displays ‘racist […] assumptions embedded within his vision of universality’ (2018) by setting these works against the background of race and politics in Argentina.