1. Cortázar's novels include: Los premios (1960), Rayuela (1963), 62: modelo para armar (1968), and Libro de Manuel (1973); his short story collections: Bestiario (1951), Final del juego (1956; 2nd enlarged edition, 1964), Las armas secretas (1959), Todos los fuegos el fuego (1966), Octaedro (1974), and Alguien que anda por ahí (1977); his dramatic “dialogue” or “poem”: Los reyes (1949); his poetry collections: Presencia (1938; under pseudonym of “Julio Denis”) and Pameos y meopas (1971). Among his “miscellaneous” volumes are: Historias de cronopios y de famas (1962), La vuelta al día en ochenta mundos (1967), Último round (1969), Fantomas contra los vampiros multinacionales (1975), Territorios (1978), and Un tal Lucas (1979). Cortázar's essays and reviews have appeared in literary and critical journals since the 1940s, and some have been reprinted in several of his “miscellaneous” books. This list is itself a preliminary classification of Cortázar's work according to conventional categories, and therefore the “miscellaneous” group includes volumes that are as different from each other as from those included in other categories. As such, the list necessarily takes a kind of position with respect to the nature of Cortázar's work, even if only for the sake of bibliographical order. Some of the most basic problems raised by the heterogeneity of Cortázar's writings are therefore evident from the outset. See Martha Paley Francescato, “Bibliography of Works by and about Julio Cortázar,” in Jaime Alazraki and Ivar Ivask, eds., The Final Island: The Prose Fiction of Julio Cortázar (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1978), pp. 171-99, for the most complete list to date of Cortázar's work and the critical studies devoted to him through 1977.

2. See Emir Rodríguez Monegal, El boom de la novela latinoamericana (Caracas: Tiempo Nuevo, 1972) for a discussion of the history behind and the immediate factors surrounding the “boom.” Cortázar's role and the significant impact of Rayuela's publication for the development of the Spanish American novel are readily acknowledged in this commentary (p. 82). For other points of view concerning the “boom,” as well as on Cortázar's relation to its development, see also: José Donoso, Historia personal del “boom” (Barcelona: Anagrama, 1972) and Hernán Vidal, Literatura hispanoamericana e ideología liberal: surgimiento y crisis (Una problemática sobre la dependencia en torno a la narrativa del boom) (Buenos Aires: Hispamérica, 1976).

3. See Paley Francescato, “Bibliography of Works by and about Julio Cortázar,” Section III, pp. 177-99, for a list of critical texts—theses, books, essay collections, articles and reviews—published through 1977. For the convenience of my readers, the following list, drawn from Paley Francescato's bibliography as well as from my own examination of specific volumes, is provided as a chronological summary of books and collective volumes (or parts thereof) dealing only with Cortázar. Titles marked by an asterisk are not included in Paley Francescato's list.

Works published in the 1960s: Setecientos monos, Año 2, No. 7 (1965); Boletín de Literaturas Hispánicas, No. 6 (1966); Cuadernos de la revista Casa de las Américas, No. 3 (1967); Índice, Año 22, Nos. 221-23 (1967); Néstor García Canclini, Cortázar: una antropología poética (Buenos Aires: Nova, 1968); Ana María Simo et al., Cinco miradas sobre Cortázar (Buenos Aires: Tiempo Contemporáneo, 1968); Graciela de Sola, Julio Cortázar y el hombre nuevo (Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1968); Sara Vinocur Tirri and Néstor Tirri, eds., La vuelta a Cortázar en nueve ensayos (Buenos Aires: Carlos Pérez, 1969); Mercedes Rein, Julio Cortázar: el escritor y sus máscaras (Montevideo: Diaco, 1969).

Works published in the 1970s: Roberto Escamilla Molina, Julio Cortázar: visión de conjunto (Mexico City: Novaro, 1970); Malva Filer, Los mundos de Julio Cortázar (New York: Las Americas, 1970); Alfred MacAdam, El individuo y el otro: crítica a los cuentos de Julio Cortázar (Buenos Aires-New York: La Librería, 1971); Carlos Mastrángelo, Usted, yo, los cuentos de Julio Cortázar y su autor (Córdoba: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, 1971); Lida Aronne Amestoy, Cortázar: la novela mandala (Buenos Aires: Fernando García Cambeiro, 1972); Juan Carlos Curutchet, Julio Cortázar o la crítica de la razón pragmática (Madrid: Nacional, 1972); Helmy F. Giacoman, ed., Homenaje a Julio Cortázar (New York: Las Americas, 1972); Davi Arriguci, Jr., O Escorpião Encalacrado: A Poética da Destruição em Julio Cortázar (São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1973); Kathleen Genover, Claves de una novelística existencial (en Rayuela de Julio Cortázar) (Madrid: Playor, 1973); Revista Iberoamericana 39, Nos. 84-85 (1973); Saúl Sosnowski, Julio Cortázar: una búsqueda mítica (Buenos Aires: Noé, 1973); Joaquín Roy, Julio Cortázar ante su sociedad (Barcelona: Península, 1974); *Brita Brodin, Criaturas ficticias y su mundo en Rayuela de Cortázar (Lund: Liber-CWK Gleerup, 1975); David Lagmanovich, ed., Estudios sobre los cuentos de Julio Cortázar (Barcelona: Hispam, 1975); *Evelyn Picon Garfield, Julio Cortázar (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1975); *Evelyn Picon Garfield, ¿Es Julio Cortázar un surrealista? (Madrid: Gredos, 1975); Books Abroad 50, No. 3 (1976); *Robert Brody, Julio Cortázar: Rayuela (London: Grant & Cutler/Tamesis, 1976); Teresinka Pereira, El realismo mágico y otras herencias de Julio Cortázar (Portugal/U.S.: Nova Era/Backstage, 1976); Alazraki and Ivask, eds., The Final Island (1978); *Antonio Planells, Cortázar: metafísica y erotismo (Madrid: José Porrúa Turanzas, 1979). Hereafter references to individual texts will be made through mention of author's or editor's name and publication date, or to journal title and date only.

4. See Paley Francescato, “Bibliography of Works by and about Julio Cortázar,” pp. 178-80, for lists of the contents of all the collective volumes.

5. See Lagmanovich, “Prólogo: para una caracterización general de los cuentos de Julio Cortázar,” pp. 7-21. Although his theoretical model is admirable for its efforts to go beyond other critics' work and to try to account for the variations structuring all of Cortázar's stories, its success is rather limited. Both the enumeration of paired or contrasted thematic “constants” and the list of “dynamic” typological categories seem to be somewhat arbitrarily constructed in terms of thematically centered binary oppositions. Here the overriding concern for thematics undermines the possibilities for creating a totalizing model, or even an entirely sound system of analysis. The attempt is itself of some importance, however; even if it fails to meet the needs of the texts in question, it at least points to the absence of such a model and raises questions about its potential construction.

6. Roberto González Echevarría, “Los reyes: Cortázar's Mythology of Writing,” in Alazraki and Ivask, eds., The Final Island, p. 63.

7. This list is a sample of titles that would represent the different types of projects already undertaken on Cortázar's work during the past two decades. Likewise, the discussion that follows deals with a selection of volumes representative of both early and recent publications to which I have had access, as well as indicating the kinds of “approaches” informing most major studies to date (February 1981).

8. See my review of El individuo y el otro: crítica a los cuentos de Julio Cortázar, by Alfred J. MacAdam, Revista Iberoamericana 39 (1973), pp. 693-95.

9. See my “Leaps across the Board,” Diacritics 4, 4 (Winter 1974), pp. 29-34.