CORTÁZAR NÃO DE TODO FANTÁSTICO

ANÁLISE COMPARATIVA ENTRE OS CONTOS “AXOLOTES” E “FIM DO JOGO”

Abstract

Julio Cortázar is a name always remembered when we talk about fantastic literature from the 20th century. But reading a book like End of the game leads us to ask whether all of the author's short stories can be considered fantastic, since the narratives in this collection are very different from each other. Based on this observation, the present work consists of a comparative analysis between the short stories “Axolotl” and “End of the game”, because, while the first presents typically fantastic characteristics, such as the themes of metamorphosis and the double; the second deals with events linked to the pre-adolescence of three girls, without any supernatural phenomenon occurring. And the occurrence of the supernatural – or something that resembles it – is a necessary condition for fantastic literature, according to the definitions of theorists such as Tzvetan Todorov and David Roas. With this comparison, we seek to answer whether, in fact, all of the author's short stories can be considered fantastic and, if so, based on which theoretical concepts. If the answer is negative, we intend to discover what type of relationship can be established between a non-fantastic short story by Cortázar and the more general meaning of his work.