SOURCE: Schwartz, Marcy E. “Cortázar's Plural Parole: Multilingual Shifts in the Short Fiction.” Romance Notes 36, no. 2 (winter 1996): 131-37.

In the following essay, Schwartz argues that “Lejana,” “El otro cielo” and “La autopista del sur” “exemplify Cortázar's manipulation of multiple language registers to underscore ontological displacement.”

Geography and national languages in Cortázar's fiction operate as semiotic cultural codes from which the characters struggle to break free. Although much of his writing takes place in French-speaking surroundings, Cortázar's multilingual and interterritorial movements are not limited to his Argentine-French biographical axes. His writing reveals that beyond a Latin American-European cosmopolitanism lies a continuing exploration of alternative realms and the avenues of accessing them. “Lejana,” “El otro cielo” and “La autopista del sur” exemplify Cortázar's manipulation of multiple language registers to underscore ontological displacement.

The stories incorporate other languages as narrative vehicles for traversing seemingly separated domains...