Point of Contact On Cortázar

This issue of Point of Contact is a focused and expansive tribute to the Argentine writer Julio Cortázar, bringing together fiction, criticism, interviews, and visual work that engage deeply with his literary legacy. Anchored by Cortázar’s own “Las peripecias del agua / The Vicissitudes of Water,” presented in Spanish with English translation, the volume unfolds as a multi-voiced conversation around his ideas, methods, and lasting influence.

Contributions by Jean Andreu, Julio Ortega, Jaime Alazraki, José Sanjinés, Alicia Borinsky, Saúl Yurkievich, Carlos A. Rabassó, and Pedro Cuperman explore Cortázar’s narrative strategies, political imagination, humor, and formal experimentation, while essays such as Instructions for Taking a Leap and reflections on Hopscotch (La Maga) extend his thinking beyond the page. Visual and textual dialogues—most notably Julio Silva’s drawings and interviews—mirror Cortázar’s own crossings between genres and disciplines.

The cover features a still-life composition by Liliana Porter, whose understated, playful arrangement subtly echoes the surreal, destabilizing logic and wit that define Cortázar’s work, setting the tone for an issue that invites readers to read, reread, and rethink one of Latin America’s most influential literary voices.

This digital version of this Point of Contact edition is accessible here, or in print, available for purchase through Punto Shop.