Jan 1, 2010

Hopscotch | Literary Precedents

Cortazar has been influenced by many philosophical, scientific, literary, and artistic theories: Bergson's "elan vital" and Sartre's Existentialism; Planck's quantum theory and Einstein's theory of relativity; Surrealism, the Theater of the Absurd, Neo-realism, Vanguardism, Cubism, Futurism, and Pop Art, make up the creative milieu out of which he creates his own deeply personal world view. Hopscotch, in many instances, borrows directly from his knowledge of Zen Buddhism. At times, Cortazar resembles a literary Roshi (Zen Master) whose goal goes beyond novelistic creation....