Imaginary Worlds in Latin American Fiction

 This is part eight from a forthcoming book called Collected Essays: Volume Two.

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I quote the texts in the original Spanish. This will be harder for non-Spanish speakers (the vast majority of my meagre audience) – apologies.

Imaginary worlds are appealing for a number of reasons. The yearning for alternate worlds goes as far back to antiquity, with the Babylonian Tales of Gilgamesh and in the Greek world with Homer. The real world is often not satisfying and we recourse to imaginary worlds to find respite. Imaginary worlds can disrupt physical laws, be a vehicle for self-realisation and fantasies and they can create a parallel world that creates a microcosm, mirrors our own and comments on the political arena. Latin America has a rich history of literature and it finally rose to international prominence in the 1960s. Latin American fiction has been notorious for its use of fantasy and surrealism and the way in which this is merged with realism. As well as this aspect, it has also been notorious for its political commitment. This essay will look at five authors – the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentinean writer Julio Cortázar, the Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti, the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo and the Chilean writer José Donoso. It will examine the ways in which these authors create imaginary world, their qualities, how they disrupt physical and temporal laws, how they are vehicles for self-realisation and how they comment on politics.

                           Latin America became a major continent in the literary world in the 1960. In the 1960s and 1970s, Latin American writers were in the international spotlight for the first time (Saizar 2000). It was a commercial event, although it did coincide with the writings of ‘great novels.’ Authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Cortázar and Carlos Fuentes sold millions of books and made a deep impression. These books merged fantasy and reality and they were socially conscious. Many critics threw the label ‘magical realism’ around, though it is hard to define. Initially, Jorge Luis Borges wrote many fantastical short stories, though he claimed that even realist literature is fantastic, as it is still artifice (Brestia year, p. 5). Movements which were prevalent in Europe, such as modernism, arrived later in Latin America. Aspects such as stream of consciousness emerged later because those modernist books were translated later. Additionally, fantastical and surrealist elements became almost synonymous with ‘Latin American fiction.’ The most famous example of this would be One Hundred Years of Solitude (1968) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. These novels often comment on political situations and many of the writers were politically committed. Many supported the Cuban revolution, although many, such as Mario Vargas Llosa, later retracted their support. (He later run for the presidency of Peru on a centre-right ticket.) Magical realism is notoriously hard to define, although some of characteristics include the ‘transgression’ of physical laws and superhuman sensory experiences (Bennette 1999, p. 21). The 1960s and the 1970s were a golden period and these novels were promptly translated into other languages (Saizar, p.11). Exceptional writers worked independently from each other and in different countries (p. 31). The magical realism of Marquez was an act of ‘individual agency,’ although magical realism was interpreted as a portrait of ‘Latin American exceptionalism’ (p. 46). It was an act of individual imagination, but it has since been interpreted as representative of the region (p. 46).

                           This essay will now turn to analyses of three short stories by Jorge Luis Borges. The short story ‘Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertuis’ is set in an ‘idealist’ planet – that is, a planet made up of thought rather than energy and matter. In this planet, language, religion and letters and metaphysics are all idealist (Borges 1944, p. 22). Indeed, a major divide in philosophy for many years was between idealism and empiricism, as the latter argues that sense-perception is dependent on experience. The former is epitomised by George Berkeley who took as it as far as it could go. Berkeley argued that all of reality is the product of the mind and anything that is not encountered by the mind is created by God. Other philosophers did not go this far, such as Immanuel Kant, who mixed idealism and empiricism. The latter strain is epitomised by David Hume who argued that all perception and knowledge is dependent on experience. According to Borges’ story, everything that Berkeley writes about is true in Tlon. It is a series of ‘independent heterogenous acts’ (p. 23). It is temporal, not spatial (p. 23). Perception is wholly mental and nothing happens spatially; everything happens in a temporal way: ‘Los hombres de ese planeta conciben el universe como una series de procesos mentales, que no desenvuelven en el espacio sino de modo sucesivo en el tiempo’ (p. 24). Thought often associates related ideas: ‘La percepción de una humareda en el horizonte, después del campo incendiado y después del cigarillo a medio apagar’ (p. 25). Indeed, materialism is ‘scandalous’ in Tlon (p. 27). However, one school of thought in Tlon rejects the concept of time and they argue that the present is undefined, the future has no reality and the past has no reality (p. 26). In this story, Borges constructs an imaginary world which is based on western metaphysics. The writings of George Berkeley and even sometimes Kant, Hegel and Schopenhauer sometimes seem counterintuitive, but the whole fabric of this planet is made up of thought, perception and ideas.

                           This essay will now look at the short story ‘Las ruinas circulares’ (‘The Circular Ruins’) by Jorge Luis Borges. The short story is about an old sage who goes to a circular temple, sleeps, dreams and creates another human in another temple. It later transpires that he has been dreamed up in another temple by someone else, so this is why the ruins are ‘circular.’ The village that he arrives at is described thusly: ‘Donde el idioma no está contaminado de griego y donde es infrequente la lepra’ (1944, p. 36). The language is ‘uncontaminated’ by Greek, so it is clearly otherworldly, as most European languages are derived from Greek. Borges also writes: ‘Nadie lo vio desambarcar’ (p. 56). This is reminiscent of the old philosophical adage – if no-one saw it, how could it happen? The temple is described thusly: ‘El recinto circular […] tuvo alguna vez el color del fuego y ahora el de ceniza’ (p. 56). It was once active, but it is now perishing and the sage is going to reanimate it and bring it back to life. Indeed, Borges writes: ‘Devoraron los incendios antiguos,’ (p. 56) which clearly shows that the temple was once fully active a long time ago. The sage goes to sleep: ‘Durmio […] sino por determinación de la voluntad’ (p. 56). Sleeping is usually a passive process, but in this case it is a highly active one which requires ‘will’ and ‘determination.’ There have been other temples and other gods which have been burned and killed: ‘Río abajo, las ruinas de otro templo propicio, también de dioses incendiados y muertos’ (p. 56). He wants to dream a man with ‘meticulous integrity’ (p. 56). It is clearly a supernatural project which transcends normal physical laws, as he calls it a ‘magical’ project: ‘Proyecto mágico’ (p. 57). The task of dreaming and sleeping is usually passive, but in this case it is creative. Indeed, it is even called ‘dialectic’: ‘Al principio fueron caóticos, después fueron de naturaleza dialectica’ (p. 57). Dialecticism involves a proposition, another counter-proposition and a synthesis of both arguments. Again, it emphasises that the dream is a proactive, strenuous and intellectual activity. It is a dialectical engagement with ghosts and spirits. Eventually, students start to study his work: ‘Alumnos estudian su doctrina’ (p. 60). His dreams are incoherent and difficult to decipher. He starts to dream his heart: ‘Sono con un corazón que latía’ (p. 60). He ends up creating a human body. He perceives him: ‘Lo percibía, lo vivía’ (p. 61). He creates his heart and lungs and the rest of his body (p. 61). His son is born in an identical circular temple. However, he realises that he is just a projection: ‘Descubriera de algún modo su condición de mero simulacro’ (p. 64). He realises that, conversely, he has also been dreamed by another sage in another temple: ‘No ser un hombre, ser la proyección del sueno de otro hombre. […] También era una apariencia, que otro estaba sonandolo’ (p. 64). The whole story is about dreaming and about creating another human, but it transpires that he is been dreamt by another magician. This is why the story is about ‘circular’ ruins. The process is called ‘dialectical,’ but although he is on his own dreaming, he is interacting with ghostly figments. Dreaming is an active, creative, determined and willed process in this case, although he does describe it as ‘incoherent.’ This imaginary world is oneiric, but there are also allusions to magic and sorcery. It is surrealistic and fantastic and there are no traces of the real world whatsoever, which is unlike the ‘magical realism’ of Marquez.  

                           ‘The Aleph’ is one of Borges’ most famous stories and this essay will now look at it. The protagonist’s wife has been dead for many years and he visits her brother every year so that they can discuss poetry. This character has an ‘aleph’ in the basement of his house. This device contains all points in space in the universe, seen from all angles: ‘Uno de los puntos del espacio que contienen todos los puntos’ (p. 187) […] Todos los lugares del orbe, visto desde todos los angulos’ (p. 188). Naturally, the character thinks that this is crazy. Retrospectively, he says that language cannot describe the experience: ‘Cómo transmitir a los otros el infinito Aleph, que mi temerosa memoria apenas abarca?’ (p. 188). The Aleph is a tiny sphere (p. 188) in which everything is an infinite number of things. The Aleph is constant breadth, expansion, multiplicity and infinity. The character describes all the things that he sees in a very long sentence that goes on for a couple of pages:

‘Vi la noche y el día contemporaneo (p. 193) […] Vi a los sobrevivientes de una batalla. […] Vi a todas las hormigas que hay en la tierra […] Vi convexos equatoriales y cada uno de sus granos de arena […] Vi la circulación de mi oscura carne […]’ (p. 193).

The sphere contains all points in time and space and Borges describes the experience over a long paragraph. Unlike the other two stories that this essay looked at, it starts off realistically, but it veers off into fantasy. ‘The Aleph’ is a reference to the Arabic alphabet, in which the first letter contains all of the other letters. It is an imaginary world and it is almost a microcosm within the story. In the beginning of the story, Borges has a Shakespeare quote from Hamlet: ‘Oh God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space.’ The whole story is about infinite space bound in a small object. The story is also short – it is not a novel – and it describes something vast and infinite. Indeed, Borges never wrote a novel and considered a lot of novels superfluous.

                           Julio Cortázar also wrote short stories and they are also classics within the genre. Cortázar wrote highly surrealistic and absurd stories which defy interpretation. This essay will now look at three of his stories and it will start with ‘Carta a una senorita en París.’ The story is about a character who vomits rabbits. He writes: ‘Me duele ingresar en un orden cerrado, construido’ (1951, p. 19). He cannot enter a closed and constructed order, but the whole story thrives on disorder and the unexpected. The story is written as a letter to the owner of the flat and she is in Paris. He is actually writing the letter because of the bunny rabbits, ‘los conejitos.’ He writes: ‘Todo es higienico, transcurre en un brevisimo instante. Saco todos los dedos de la boca, y en ellos traigo sujecto por las orejas a un conejito blanco’ (p. 19). This is a quick and hygienic process in which jerks out a white rabbit. Eventually, he decides to kill the bunnies, but he does not do it. He writes: ‘De día duermen. Hay diez. De día duermen’ (p. 22). They come out at night and wreck the entire flat: ‘El destrozo insalvable de su casa’ (p. 27). They break the curtains, the chairs, paintings on the wall, leave the carpet full of hair and they keep shrieking (p. 27). This story is highly oneiric, as the bunnies come out at night and they are possibly a metaphor for the unconscious being let loose. The story is completely surreal, bizarre, jarring, surprising, absurdist and quite humorous as well. It is similar to surrealism in other art forms, such as Luis Bunuel in film and Salvador Dalí in painting.

                           This story will now look at Cortázar’s short story ‘Continuidad de los parques.’ The story is about a businessman who reads a novel during the weekend. The short story ends with the characters in the novel becoming real and the protagonist ends up in his living room. Indeed, he wants to read the novel, but he has abandoned it because he is so busy at work: ‘Había empezado a leer la novela unos días antes, pero la abandono por negocios urgentes’ (p. 13). He wants to read the novel in his leisure time, he is very wealthy and he has a butler. In this context, reading the novel is an act of escapism from a busy schedule. He reads the book in the tranquillity of his study: ‘Volvío al libro en la tranquilidad del estudio’ (p. 13). He is immersed in the novel: ‘La ilusión novelesca lo gano en seguida’ (p. 13). The story describes a woman with a lover and she leaves him and walks towards the house. She carries a knife. Cortázar describes the house, which is quiet and empty. The dogs do not bark and the butler is not in. She goes into the room and discovers a man reading a novel. He describes the room: ‘La puerta del salón, y entonces el punal en la mano, la luz de los ventanales’ (p. 13). She finds the character reading his novel: ‘La cabeza del hombre en el sillón leyendo una novela’ (p. 13). The man reads the book and imagines the story until the woman arrives at his house where he is reading. The story is self-referential meta-fiction, as it refers to itself. The man reads a book and the story comes to life in the world that he is living in. It is an act of escapism from his busy schedule, but the work of fiction becomes real. It is set in the real world, but the story recreates the subjectivity of reading and the emotional reactions that it provokes. The act of reading is a subjective mental experience, but in this case it becomes palpably real. The implication is that he is going to get murdered, as she is carrying a dagger. 

                           This essay will now look at Cortázar’s short story ‘Axolotl.’ The protagonist looks at an aquarium full of fish in a zoo and ends up becoming a fish. He writes: ‘Quadaba horas mirándolos. […] Ahora soy un axolotl’ (p. 151). He writes that he has a connection with the fish: ‘Estábamos vinculados’ (p. 151). There is something unfathomable which links the fish with the protagonist of the story: ‘Que algo infinitamente perdido y distante seguia sin embargo uniendonos’ (p.152). They have golden eyes and they look at the man who stares into the aquarium, as he scrutinises their body and face. He writes: ‘Abolir el tiempo y el espacio con una inmovilidad indiferente’ (p. 153). They abolish time and space with their ‘indifferent mobility.’ Once more, the story is highly subjective and the character loses his sense of time and space. He writes that their eyes are similar to human eyes: ‘Diversos peses me mostraban la simple estupidez de sus hermosos ojos semejante a los nuestros’ (p. 153). They show him another way of looking at things: ‘Me decian de la presencia de una vida diferente, de otra manera de mirar’ (p. 154). The character is entranced in his heightened subjectivity, as he thinks about a different way of living whilst he glues his head to the glass. Indeed, the guard of the zoo is disconcerted by his strange behaviour (p. 154). He eventually becomes one of the fish: ‘Antes de ser axolotl’ (p. 154). There is a sense of anthropomorphism here, but it is inverted. In anthropomorphism, the animals acquire human characteristics, but in this case the human acquires animal characteristics. However, he does write that they evince human characteristics: ‘Si piensan como los hombres, sera porque los axolotl piensan como hombres’ (p. 157). Cortázar spoke about ‘fisulas’ in interviews, which are surreal and fantastical moments which transcend the mundane and which surprise us. The character looks at an aquarium and becomes transfixed by the fish and becomes one of them. Again, the story is very subjective and it is all about his interior experience.

                           Juan Carlos Onetti was one of the precursors of ‘the boom’ and his stories mingled fantasy and reality. His novel La Vida Breve (1950) (A Brief Life) is about a man who keeps a scenario in his draw at work. He ends up living inside it, in a place called ‘Santa María.’ The last chapter of the novel takes place in that imaginary world. In this world, there is nothing surreal or supernatural. Cortázar’s stories have surreal elements in them, but they often – as in ‘Axolotl’ and ‘Continuidad de los parques’ – describe subjective experiences in the real world. Onetti’s ‘Santa María’ takes place in a mythical/parallel reality, but there is nothing supernatural about it. Indeed, the writing is almost naturalistic: ‘El negocio está ahora abierto y el sol ilumina las narices, los bigotes, las telas sedosas del escaparate’ (p. 404). He refers to a character that he is infatuated with as ‘Ustéd’ and English character as ‘Inglés.’ It is an imaginary world that reinforces his own preferences, predilections and he does not have to bestow other people with names. It is mostly comprised of subjective descriptions of what happens: ‘Usted examina los vestidos. […] tan rapidamente que mis ojos confunden los colores’ (p. 405). Although Santa María is a fictional parallel world, there are still references to real cities. Santa María is posited between Buenos Aires and Montevidoe and is in some ways a composite of both. Additionally, this imaginary world is still imbued with political slogans: ‘Un largo paredon donde han pintado leyendas politicas con altas letras blancas’ (p. 423). Additionally, this chapter is subjective, it is from the first person and it has a lot of interior monologues which ruminate about other characters. Everything seems to be an amorphous blur and it is not clearly defined: ‘Confudimos calles, risas, músicas, faroles’ (p. 424). He does not reply to the greetings of strangers called Albano since, like the streets, most of the people inhabiting Santa María are not concretely defined and most people are called Albano. He describes a scene thusly: ‘En una plazoleta de barrio, sin estatuatas ni verja, con un enorme pino central’ (p. 427). The park does not have statues and just one giant tree. Once more, the imaginary world is not as concretely defined as the real world. He walks with a woman aimlessly: ‘Alcanzamos la esquina y remontamos la desierta calle arbolada, sin huir de nadie, sin buscar ningún encuentro, arrastrando un poco los pies, más por felicidad que por cansancio’ (p, 428). He finds meaning with a woman and he creates an imaginary world about finding serenity and happiness. This imaginary world is not as surrealistic as Cortázar, but although it is set in a parallel world it has more realistic elements. Although it has more realistic elements, few characters are given names and the surroundings are sketchy.

                           Like Onetti, Juan Rulfo was a precursor to the Boom and he was also a big influence on these writers. In the novel Pedro Páramo (1955), the character Juan Preciado goes to a town called Comala. His mother, on her death bed, tells him to go there because his father Pedro Páramo lives there. As soon as he gets there, he finds that Comala is a ghost town and that all of its inhabitants are dead. The novel jumps about in time and chronicles Comala and the autocratic reign of Pedro Páramo. When he gets there, he is told that no-one lives there: ‘Aquí no vive nadie’ (p. 13). He is told that Pedro Páramo has been dead for years: ‘Pedro Páramo murio hace varios anos’ (p. 13). It is an imaginary world and, additionally, the novel is not linear and jumps about in time. The novel takes place in a ghost town in which all the characters are dead. As such, a universal clock is lost. It creates an imaginary world in which the political world is mirrored. Pedro Páramo represents a Latin American ‘caudillo,’ an autocratic tyrant who imposes his will on the population. Rulfo also recreates the rural poverty that had been endemic in Latin America. He describes events in different moments in time. Water is a recurring motif: ‘En el hidrante las gotas caen una tras otra’ (p. 29). In one scene, a character wakes up and Rulfo describes how he wakes up: ‘Adormecido, plastado por el peso del sueno’ (p. 29). This has an oneiric quality to it. Rulfo does not describe the physical characteristics of his characters; they are all vague and ghost-like: ‘Vio cara de una mujer oscura recotrada contra el marco de la puerta, oscurecida todavía por la noche, sollozando’ (p. 30). She says: ‘Tú padre ha muerto’ (p. 30). He says: ‘Y a ti quien te mató, madre’ (p. 30). It is a dream-like environment, as the character wakes up from dreaming. The son has to remind her that she, too, is dead. Everyone is dead and death is omnipresent. There is a sense that families are perishing and there is a lot of talk about parents, mothers and dying. There is a sense of history, families and lineages coming to an end, but it is all in a perpetual stand-still as they are all perpetual ghosts. In another scene, revolutionaries want to kill Pedro Páramo and aim to take possession of his land. Tartamudo, a humble peasant with a stutter talks to the autocratic strongman. Pedro Páramo asserts himself: ‘Y qué esperas? Por qué not te mueves? Anda y diles a esos que estoy para que se les ofrezca. Que vengan a tratar conmigo’ (p. 101). He is clearly an authoritarian leader who will deal with anyone and he is willing to deal with subversive revolutionaries. He is also willing to use harsh methods in dealing with them. He asserts his authority over Comala, a fictional town that clearly resembles many Latin American places. At one point in the novel, Pedro Páramo says: ‘We are the law’ (p. 105). There is no law constraining him and there are no checks and balances. Rulfo creates a world in which there is no universal clock because all the characters are dead. Themes of death, decay, ghostliness, familes and lineages are present. Rulfo also recreates the political environment, with its rampant poverty and its authoritarian leaders asserting themselves.

                           This essay will now look at El obsceno pájaro de la noche (1970) (The Obscene Bird of Night) by José Donoso, possibly one of the strangest novels ever written anywhere, let alone this time and period. The novel is about a schizophrenic character called ‘Mudito’ (‘Mutey’) who is assistant at a care home, a law student, assistant to an aristocrat, an aspiring writer and he oversees a castle of monsters. The novel flits through all of these perspectives. Together with the maid Peta Ponce, they conceive the mutant child ‘Boy’ in an act of witchcraft. His father, the aristocrat Azcoíta, is repelled by him and transfers him to a castle of mutants so that he grows up in a normal world. Additionally, Mudito likes to get into sacks and a co-worker at a care home, Inés, who is always pregnant, carries him around like a baby. The whole novel is bizarre, oneiric and surreal. There is one striking scene when the monsters operate on Mudito so as to turn him into a monster. All of the monsters drag him away: ‘Sus deformidades como si no tuvieran verguenza de ellas’ (p. 271). In this parallel world, the monsters are normal and Mudito is the exception, so they are not ashamed of their deformities. They never leave the castle, but Mudito can: ‘No sale nunca de la Rinconada […] no pueden salir, como yo tengo permiso para salir’ (p. 271). Mudito flits in and out of this castle of monsters. The paragraphs are very long and, as they are stream of consciousness, they capture Mudito’s warped thinking and he is clearly psychotic. In this warped world, being a normal human is in itself strange. These monsters find him disgusting: ‘Demasiado asqueroso […] asquerados de mi persona’ (p. 272). They want to complete a blood transfusion on him and put monstruous blood into Mudito. Mudito says: ‘Me estan monstroficando’ (p. 272). This translates as ‘they monstrofying me’ and Donoso employs a neologism here. The blood comes from different monsters and they have different qualities: ‘Como si tuvieran sabores distintos que reconozco’ (p. 273). He loses his form: ‘He perdido mi forma’ (p. 273). They completely change who he is: ‘Me deforma hasta que ya no soy yo’ (p. 273). He is no longer Humberto Penaloza and loses his identity: ‘Me están quitando la identitad’ (p. 275). Indeed, a major theme in the novel is how the self is annulled and how individuals have to assume different social roles in different situations. Mudito has so many different social roles that he is schizophrenic. In this particular instance, monsters take away his identity by turning him into one of them. Mudito writes that he has never really had a stable identity: ‘Además ya no soy quien fui si es que algúna vez fui alguien’ (p. 275). They have completely annulled his identity, but Mudito assumes so many social roles in so many different situations that he wonders whether he ever really had one in the first place. This is clearly a psychotic hallucination and the castle of monsters is clearly a figment of his imagination. This imaginary world is created in the novel by the aristocrat Azcoíta because he wants his mutant son to grow up in a world in which he is not a freak. This imaginary world is completely surrealistic, bizarre and comedic, but it is also an interior monologue and a stream of consciousness. It is also the record of a psychotic and disorganised mind.   

                           Borges disrupts physical laws in ‘The Aleph,’ but his stories are also set in parallel realities with their own physical laws. ‘Tlon’ is a mythological planet based on metaphysical idealist philosophy. ‘Tlon’ and ‘Ruins’ are parallel worlds, but they are self-enclosed and do not comment on the political world. Cortázar disrupts physical laws, such as in the story about vomiting rabbits, but they describe subjective experiences. They are often a vehicle for self-realisation, as in ‘Axolotl’ in which the character becomes a fish. Cortázar is often oblique and the three stories that this essay looked at do not have political commentary. Onetti breaks physical laws, as Santa María is the product is the product of the protagonist’s mind, though the territory does not break physical laws. It is definitely a vehicle for self-realisation, as the character keeps a screenplay in his draw and ends up living it. He populates it with women that he finds attractive. It is a parallel world, but it has echoes of Buenos Aires and Montevideo. In Juan Rulfo, the novel disrupts temporal laws, as all the characters are dead and the novel jumps about in time. The novel is a parallel world and it comments on the political realm. The eponymous character embodies the autocratic ‘caudillo’ and there are depictions of revolutionaries. The novel by José Donoso disrupts physical laws, as a girl is always pregnant, there is a castle of mutants and Mudito is turned into a mutant. In many ways, there are aspects of self-realisation as these are all Mudito’s hallucinations. He has to be a lawyer, even though he wants to be a writer. He has to serve the aristocrat Azcoíta and he gets shot trying to save him. In many ways, these fantasies are a form of psychotic self-realisation since he is deeply repressed. The novel does have political commentary, since the maid Peta Ponce is part of an underclass and controls the upper crust. Azcoíta is a wealthy aristocrat and he is dependent on many people such as Mudito to serve him, so this comments on Chile’s class-divided society. The protagonist always assumes different personalities depending on the social context and he is schizophrenic as a result. These are all the ways that these Latin American writers create imaginary worlds.    

Works Cited

Bennett, Caroline Jane. (1999) The Politics and the Poetics of Latin American Magical Realism. PhD thesis for University of London.

                           Borges, Jorge Luis. (1949) El aleph. Madrid: Alianza editorial.

                           Borges, Jorge Luis. (1944) Ficciones. Madrid: Alianza editorial.

   Brescia, Pablo. (2008) A. J. ‘A Superior Magic: Literary Politics and the Rise of the Fantastic in Latin American Fiction.’ In Scholar   Commons. 4.

               Cortázar, Julio. (1956). Final del juego. Madrid: Alfaguara.

                           Cortázar, Julio. (1951) Bestiario. Madrid: Punto de lectura.

                           Donoso, José. (1970) El obsceno pájaro de la noche. Santiago: Alfaguara.

                           Onetti, Juan Carlos. (1950) La vida breve. Barcelona: Edhasa.

                           Rulfo, Juan. (1955) Pedro Páramo. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta.

   Sáizar, Consuelo. (2021) ‘Constructing Hegemony: The Latin American Boom and the Book Industries of Spain and Mexico: 1963-1967.’ PhD thesis for the University of Cambridge.