Modern Languages and Literatures

Despite the wide range of publications about Julio Cortázar, there is no study that specifically addresses the question: what does Cortázar mean by 'el hombre nuevo'? Based on a careful reading of two of his novels, Rayuela / Hopscotch and Libro de Manuel / A Manual for Manuel, my thesis defines 'el hombre nuevo' as Cortázar's attempt to establish a dialogue with the reader in order to invent together a new understanding of the human being. 'El hombre nuevo' involves an extended ontological search which is continued outside of the text, and the relationship author-reader goes beyond a dyadic model into the construction of a new community of new men and new women.

Resumen: En "Axolotl," cuento publicado en la colección Final del Juego (1956), de Julio Cortázar, el narrador relata su transformación de humano a axolotl. Tradicionalmente interpretado como un ejemplo de ficción fantástica, en esta presentación propongo una re-lectura que toma como base la ontología del devenir en la filosofía de Gilles Deleuze y Félix Guattari. En Mil Mesetas: Capitalismo y Esquizofrenia, Deleuze y Guattari teorizan las posibilidades de transformación del ser humano, sujeto que se encuentra en continuo y constante devenir. El devenir, como explican Deleuze y Guattari, es una línea de escape y creatividad frente a la sedimentación del comportamiento del individuo occidental. Toda evasión a la individualidad, explican, ha sido catalogada negativamente como síntomas de desórdenes mentales, como la esquizofrenia. Para Deleuze y Guattari, la esquizofrenia ofrece nuevas maneras para entender el sujeto humano, fuera de la univocalidad de la representación de categorías y géneros, y proponen un esquizoanálisis que explica la plurivocalidad del sujeto humano. De esta manera, interpreto "Axolotl" como un modelo de evasión de las normas convencionales de comportamiento -el protagonista admira por horas los axolotl a pesar de los comentarios denigrantes de los trabajadores del acuario -y se dedica una transformación que parece imposible, pero que se actualiza al entrar en una relación colectiva con los axolotl. Así, una re-lectura de "Axolotl" a través de la filosofía del devenir y el esquizoanálisis, abre nuevas posibilidades de conexiones dentro del sujeto y de colectividad dentro y fuera de grupos humanos, con importantes implicaciones para la psiquiatría y los estudios sobre la discapacidad (disability studies).

In the words of Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, "la escritura es una operación musical" (Fascinación 98). 1 The concept of writing as a musical operation is based on the rhythm of the text. Without the proper rhythm, Cortázar argues, the communication between author and reader would fail (Fascinación 99). In his writing the rhythm transmits a tension within the text that places the reader outside of his daily environment. Such is the case in 'El Perseguidor' ('The Pursuer'), in which Cortázar presents two main characters, Bruno and Johnny, in a dialogue that challenges the conventional conceptions of time, reality, and, music.

What is the role of the reader in the narrative of a novel? Can a book initiate the reader into a process of becoming a 'new person' through the act of reading? In this paper, I aim to demonstrate that the novels Rayuela / Hopscotch (1963) and Libro de Manuel / A Manual for Manuel (1973), by Argentine author Julio Cortázar, pursue an ontological search which requires the reader's active participation. In both of these novels, I argue, Cortázar attempts to establish a bridge, or dialogue, with the reader in order to invent together a new understanding of the human being and create a reality in which the individual and the collective are recognized and enhanced. As Cortázar expresses in Rayuela, he wants the reader to be a "cómplice, un camarada de camino" / "an accomplice … a travelling companion" (R401/H397). 1 Using a playful and inventive writing style, Cortázar's fiction stimulates and requests an active act of reading.

Disability and anti-poverty activist A. J. Withers' recent book, Disability Politics & Theory, is an open denunciation of what Withers call the "medical-industrial complex," which includes "doctors, medical researchers, pharmaceutical corporations, insurance corporations, hospitals and others involved in the medical industry" (31). This book rejects the medical model of disability, in favour of what Withers call the radical model: an inclusive recognition of a community based on solidarity and openness. (Instead of working on assumptions and in respect

Encuentros sutiles: sobre la demonización de Lautréamont en Los raros de Darío ¿Cuántas páginas necesita un intelectual para transformar la visión que los lectores han creado sobre un texto literario? Tomemos por ejemplo Los cantos de Maldoror (1869), del uruguayo Isidore Lucien Ducasse, o mejor conocido como el Conde de Lautréamont. Ruben Darío, o el 'Príncipe de las Letras Castellanas' como se le conoce en Nicaragua, incluye al Conde en su

Humour makes us think – it creates a relaxed environment where instructors and students contribute to learning. However, as recent research has shown, we tend to forget the benefits of humour when teaching in a university classroom (Pomerantz & Bell, 2011). This workshop focuses on the uses of humour in second language acquisition learning and the instruction of world literature. It draws on research on humour as a teaching tool as well as the impact of low-inference teaching behaviours. Also, it elaborates on the cultural differences found in language and world literature classrooms, and it encourages instructors to use humour to overcome cultural and language barriers. Humour, the workshop stresses, is a safe teaching technique for both the instructor and the student by which the classroom comes together in a respectful environment.

There is no cure for the fantastic. Once trapped in it, the mind is seized and, normally, it attempts to fathom fictions that would help discharge its anxiety. As Julio Cortázar writes in the first chapter of Rayuela (chapter 73), " Nuestra verdad posible tiene que ser invención, es decir escritura, literatura, pintura, escultura, agricultura, piscicultura, todas las turas de este mundo " / " Our possible truth must be an invention, that is to say, scripture, literature, picture, sculpture, agriculture, pisciculture, all the tures in this world " (388-9/384). The fantastic, I argue, may be a 'tura,' an invention to ground itself in the everyday and remain, at the same time, on the borders of reality. I will attempt to explore fantastic literature from the perspective of Cortázar, whom I regard not only as a prominent writer of the genre but also as a significant literary theorist. At the same time, I aim to elaborate the main theory of the fantastic put forward by Tzvetan Todorov, for whom there exist very specific lines between literary genres while also leaving a point of escape near that bordering of language that literature has to put pushing in order to survive. In addition, I will present the work by critics of Todorov, such as Stanislaw Lem, Susana Reisz, and David Roas, among others, in order to counter the reductiveness of his structuralist approach, and provide room for perspectives that focus rather on the indefinability of the fantastic. My thesis will add to the scholarship of the fantastic by supplementing those theories and by incorporating Cortázar's views to Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of becoming: fantastic literature as texts that speak by themselves and, in the process, initiate an effect on both reader and writer that they cannot seize. The fantastic, I argue, takes possession of the mind by propagating itself through linguistic and non-linguistic avenues that open up new potentialities for both language and reality.

Humour makes us think-it creates a relaxed environment where instructors and students contribute to learning. However, as recent research has shown, we tend to forget the benefits of humour when teaching in a university classroom (Pomerantz & Bell, 2011). This workshop focuses on the uses of humour in second language acquisition learning and the instruction of world literature. It draws on research on humour as a teaching tool as well as the impact of low-inference teaching behaviours. Also, it elaborates on the cultural differences found in language and world literature classrooms, and it encourages instructors to use humour to overcome cultural and language barriers. Humour, the workshop stresses, is a safe teaching technique for both the instructor and the student by which the classroom comes together in a respectful environment.

Humour makes us think-it creates a relaxed environment where instructors and students contribute to learning. However, as recent research has shown, we tend to forget the benefits of humour when teaching in a university classroom (Pomerantz & Bell, 2011). This workshop focuses on the uses of humour in second language acquisition learning and the instruction of world literature. It draws on research on humour as a teaching tool as well as the impact of low-inference teaching behaviours. Also, it elaborates on the cultural differences found in language and world literature classrooms, and it encourages instructors to use humour to overcome cultural and language barriers. Humour, the workshop stresses, is a safe teaching technique for both the instructor and the student by which the classroom comes together in a respectful environment.

ONTOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL SEARCH FOR 'EL HOMBRE NUEVO': JULIO CORTÁZAR'S RAYUELA AND LIBRO DE MANUEL Jaime Román Brenes Reyes Advisor: University of Guelph, 2011 Prof. Gordana Yovanovich Despite the wide range of publications about Julio Cortázar, there is no study that specifically addresses the question: what does Cortázar mean by 'el hombre nuevo'? Based on a careful reading of two of his novels, Rayuela / Hopscotch and Libro de Manuel / A Manual for Manuel, my thesis defines 'el hombre nuevo' as Cortázar's attempt to establish a dialogue with the reader in order to invent together a new understanding of the human being. 'El hombre nuevo' involves an extended ontological search which is continued outside of the text, and the relationship author-reader goes beyond a dyadic model into the construction of a new community of new men and new women.