A Nightmare of Nightmares. A Fusion of Literary Awareness and Political Consciousness in Julio Cortázar

Abstract

Cortázar expresses his concern in his introduction to El libro de Manuel for the problem of reconciling a political awareness with a literary consciousness. In a novel patched with newspaper cuttings and dealing explicitly with political topics among others, it is precisely the dream, a subversive pattern running throughout the work, that unites the author's literary and political ambition. A nightmare, meanwhile, provides the central theme and key to this convergence of activities in “Pesadillas”, a short story in his recent collection, Deshoras.