Historical Context
Bebop and Charlie Parker
In the dawn of the twentieth century, jazz emerged as a vibrant fusion of Western classical traditions and the soulful strains of African American folk and blues. Legends like Louis Armstrong quickly captivated audiences of all colors, and as the big band era crescendoed in the 1930s, jazz reigned supreme across America. Yet, as the 1940s rolled in, a growing restlessness stirred among black musicians, disenchanted with the constraints of big band and swing. This dissatisfaction birthed the audacious and innovative rhythms of bebop, which began reshaping the musical landscape with its daring harmonies and experimental flair.
Characterized by its fresh sound and unique instrumentation, bebop found its ideal expression within small ensembles. As the big band era faded, bebop became intertwined with a mosaic of artistic and cultural movements, often aligning with the counterculture of post-war America and Europe. Unlike the ballroom anthems of the past, bebop's syncopated beats resonated in intimate, smoky venues, where musicians played not to entertain, but to express. While figures such as Armstrong catered to the mainstream, earning both adoration and criticism, bebop artists walked a different path — one less concerned with public approval and more steeped in artistic authenticity.
Among the pioneers of bebop, the ensembles led by Billy Eckstine and Dizzy Gillespie stood out, in part due to their recruitment of a prodigious young saxophonist from Kansas — Charlie Parker. Known affectionately as "Bird" or "Yardbird," Parker's genius was a force of nature, driving the bebop movement forward almost single-handedly. Despite a tumultuous upbringing and a struggle with addiction, Parker's relentless dedication to his craft saw him emulate icons like Lester Young and play with bands across Kansas City, Chicago, and New York. By 1942, he had made his first recordings, joining Billy Eckstine’s band two years later, and forever altering the course of jazz by 1945.
Parker's life was marred by personal demons, leading to several breakdowns and a stint in a state hospital in 1946. Yet, upon his recovery, he created some of his most celebrated music, collaborating with luminaries such as Miles Davis and Max Roach. His 1949 debut in Paris was met with resounding acclaim, but the following years were a tumultuous mix of soaring successes and steep falls. In 1955, after returning to New York, Parker's life tragically ended in the room of his confidante, Baroness "Nica" Ponnonica de Koenigswarter, succumbing to the ravages of substance abuse.
The Hispanic Avant-garde
Much like Jorge Luis Borges, the renowned Argentine writer celebrated for his postmodern literary innovations, Julio Cortázar belonged to a vibrant community of avant-garde authors and intellectuals. This group boldly departed from traditional artistic norms. Borges, already an illustrious figure by the time Cortázar embarked on his journey, cast a long shadow of influence, even publishing Cortázar’s initial short stories. Cortázar openly recognized Borges's impact, particularly in the realm of complex narratives that defy linear interpretations of time and space, as well as his exploration of "intertextuality," wherein texts converse with other texts rather than the tangible world or concrete ideas.
Though Borges laid the groundwork for many avant-garde themes, Cortázar and his contemporaries emerged during an era when postmodernist thought was at its zenith. In the wake of World War II, influential French theorists like Jacques Lacan were reshaping the cultural and intellectual landscape, steering it away from modernist conventions. While modernism emphasized cohesive artistic expression and allegory, postmodernism questioned the core of representation itself, delving into metaphysical quandaries about the nature of reality.
While Europe, particularly Paris, served as the cradle for these revolutionary ideas, writers from the Hispanic world...
(This entire section contains 864 words.)
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eagerly engaged with them. One noteworthy style that flourished in the mid-20th century was "magical realism," a distinctly Latin American blend of myth, fantasy, and the mundane. Like many Latin American avant-garde writers, Cortázar maintained a complex bond with his native Argentina. Buenos Aires loomed large in his works, growing ever more integral to his narratives, despite his physical absence after relocating to Paris in 1951.
Postwar Politics in France and Latin America
Turmoil in the French Colonial Realm
The 1950s unfolded as a tempestuous era for the French colonial empire. By 1954, France had emerged from the crucible of a protracted and costly conflict in colonial Indochina, only to face renewed upheaval in 1958. In Algeria, a powerful insurrection, fueled by discontented colonials and military factions, shattered the stability of the French government. This upheaval paved the way for Charles de Gaulle's dramatic return to power as France's president, reinstating a semblance of order amidst the chaos.
Winds of Change in the Hispanic World
Concurrently, the Hispanic world was swept up in its own waves of political transformations. In Argentina, 1955 marked the end of an era as a military-civilian rebellion toppled President Perón—a leader against whom Cortázar had vocally protested. This uprising set the stage for a series of authoritarian regimes that would follow.
Meanwhile, the winds of revolution blew fervently across Cuba in 1959, where a socialist uprising left an indelible mark on the left-leaning Hispanic intelligentsia. These seismic political shifts profoundly affected Cortázar, though their specific influence on the Parisian social landscape portrayed in “The Pursuer” remains an enigma.
Literary Style
Verb Tenses
One of the most compelling techniques in “The Pursuer” is its innovative manipulation of verb tenses—past, present, and future—to weave its narrative. Bruno defies the usual conventions of narrative unity and structure, deliberately choosing unconventional verb constructions. His preference leans towards the present perfect tense, a form typically reserved for events that occurred at some nebulous point straddling past and present. Phrases like “Dédée has called,” “I have gone,” and “We have recognized” emanate from the story's opening and exemplify how this persistent tense blurs the lines between past and present.
Understanding the divergence between the original Spanish verb usage in “The Pursuer” and its translated counterpart is essential. The earlier examples differ from Paul Blackburn’s translation, as Doris Sommer highlights in her piece “Pursuing a Perfect Present.” Sommer contends this is because Blackburn “refuses to respect the redundant awkwardness” inherent in Cortázar’s prose. Though Blackburn’s version oscillates across various tenses, it sidesteps the consistent use of “haber” in the present tense—“he, has, ha, hemos, han”—a feature so pronounced in the Spanish text.
Cortázar’s choice for this storytelling approach serves multiple purposes. As Sommer posits, it mirrors the improvisational flair of Charlie Parker’s bebop—a musician adept at transcending conventional boundaries of time and rhythm to forge novel musical perceptions. Moreover, the story's tense variations underscore Cortázar’s exploration of time’s essence and metaphysical inquiries (referenced above), while also probing their interplay with art, music, and storytelling.
Biographical Fiction
The character of Johnny Carter is intricately crafted to echo the legendary alto saxophonist, Charlie Parker. Johnny’s life details, from his travel years and drug use to his musical style and connections with a wealthy patron, suggest a strong resemblance to Parker. Yet, “The Pursuer” employs the fictional realm to delve into the life of this iconic jazz figure. Johnny emerges as a fictional creation, thus the narrative transcends mere biographical fiction, presenting instead a tale inspired by real-life personas and occurrences. Through Bruno’s portrayal of Johnny’s biography, Cortázar underscores the inadequacy of traditional biographical formats in truly encapsulating a person’s essence. Through fictional dramatization, he experiments with a more authentic method of capturing the spirit of a real individual.
Compare and Contrast
1950s: In the heart of the city, bebop reigns supreme, drawing eager crowds into intimate clubs where the jazz maestros of the era unleash their spontaneous genius.
Today: The allure of live jazz resonates with a seasoned audience, while nightclubs now echo with the eclectic beats spun by DJs, ranging from hip-hop to drum and bass.
1950s: Among the illicit drugs favored by jazz musicians, heroin—a potent and addictive opiate—stands as the most perilous.
Today: Heroin use persists, but with heightened peril due to the risk of HIV transmission from shared needles and the greater purity found on the streets. The 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health revealed that 1.6% of Americans over the age of twelve have experimented with heroin.
1950s: On the bohemian Left Bank of the Seine in Paris, foreign artists and intellectuals gather to soak in music, café culture, and fervent discussions of art and philosophy. They are recognized as the second wave of the Lost Generation, echoing the expatriate surge that followed World War I.
Today: Paris, a beacon of culture, remains vibrant but is less of a magnet for expatriate writers and musicians than it once was.
1950s: The literary scene buzzes with the innovation of magical realism, championed by Latin American luminaries like Cortázar and Gabriel García Márquez.
Today: Latin American literature continues to weave myths and fantasy, yet critical eyes are now turning towards previously overlooked works by female authors and narratives centered on women’s experiences.
Media Adaptations
Julio Cortázar’s intriguing tale, "Las babas del Diablo," from the evocative collection Las armas secretas, served as the inspiration behind Michelangelo Antonioni’s iconic 1966 film, Blowup. This cinematic masterpiece stars the charismatic David Hemmings alongside the enigmatic Vanessa Redgrave.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Sources
Alazraki, Jaime, “From Bestiary to Glenda: Pushing the Short Story to It’s Utmost Limits,” in the Review of Contemporary Fiction, Vol. 3, No 3, Fall 1983.
Cortázar, Julio, “The Pursuer,” in End of the Game and Other Stories, translated by Paul Blackburn, 1963, reprint, Lowe & Brydone, 1968, pp. 182–247.
Felkel, Robert W., “The Historical Dimension in Julio Cortázar’s ‘The Pursuer,’” in Latin American Literary Review, Vol. 14, Spring-Summer 1979, pp. 20–27.
Kauffman, Stanley, Review of End of the Game and Other Stories, in Modern Latin American Literature, Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1975, p. 264; originally published in New Republic, July 15, 1967, p. 22.
Sommer, Doris, “Pursuing a Perfect Present,” in Julio Cortázar: New Readings, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 211–36.
Further Reading
Alazraki, Jaime, ed., Critical Essays on Julio Cortázar, G. K. Hall, 1999. Alazraki is one of the leading scholars on Cortázar and provides a diverse collection of essays about a wide range of the author’s work.
Alazraki, Jaime, and Ivar Ivask, eds., The Final Island: The Fiction of Julio Cortázar, University of Oklahoma Press, 1978. The essays anthologized in this book are by the best and most influential of Cortázar’s critics.
Garfield, Evelyn Picon, Julio Cortázar, Ungar, 1975. Based on interviews with Cortázar, Garfield’s book is one of the most important critical commentaries on the author that is written in English.
Hodeir, André, Jazz, It’s Evolution and Essence, translated by David Noakes, Grove Press, 1956. Hodeir, a biographer and critic largely grouped with the 1950s Parisian literati, is in many ways a model for Bruno. His analysis of jazz music, originally published in French in 1954, is most famous for the light it sheds on Charlie Parker.
