Cortázar and Music

Music pervades the work of the Argentine author Julio Cortázar (1914-1984). From the classical strains of a Mozart string quartet to Carlos Gardel’s iconic tango performances and Charlie Parker’s insistent bebop improvisations, Cortázar’s texts return time and again to the different musical predilections and interests of their author. In this wide-ranging study, Nicholas Roberts examines not just the role played by music in numerous essays and fictions by Cortázar, but how diverse musical genres and styles are used and appropriated by the author as an axial and determining element of his thought and praxis. Accordingly, this study illuminates not only Cortázar’s engagement with music, but the broader ontological and linguistic concerns that lie at the heart of his work.

Nicholas Roberts is Associate Professor in Hispanic Studies at Durham University.