Tenured Professor, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Argentina. Email: lucia.caminada@comunidad.unne.edu.ar
Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 3, September-October 2022, Pages 1–13. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n3.10
First published: October 8, 2022 | Area: Latin America | License: CC BY-NC 4.0
(This article is published under the themed issue “Across Cultures: Ibero-America and India”)
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From the observatory in India: Julio Cortázar´s Kaleidoscopic Gaze
Abstract
This article investigates two texts that the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar produced in relation to his experience and trips to India: Prose of the observatory (1972) and the text Turismo aconsejable [Advisable tourism] included in Último round (1969). Both texts contain photographs, which generate a kaleidoscopic gaze characterized by cultural distance and closeness, as well as aesthetic experience. The hypothesis is that a kind of observatory is generated from which the writer observes, perceives and interprets the sensitivity of Latin American and Indian cultures in dialogue. The objective of this study is to identify the Cortazarian kaleidoscopic gaze that permanently generates both an approach and a distance, through the reading of these hybrid texts whose photographs and words produce a playful and experimental space.
Keywords: Julio Cortázar, Prose of the Observatory, India, kaleidoscopic gaze, photography
