A collection of short stories written by the Argentinean novelist Julio Cortázar alongside his interviews and quotes has been published in Persian by Ettefagh publication.
Pejman Tehranian has gathered and translated ten short stories by the Latin American author, titled in Persian “Trivial and Important Things,” accompanied by a selection of Cortázar interviews and quotes translated by Noushin Jafari, ISNA reported on its Persian website.
Considered as one of the founders of the Latin American literary movement in the 1960’s, Cortázar’s magical realism style has placed him among the famous literary figures of the world.
Identity is the primary theme in his novels and short stories. His characters frequently lose or swap their identity, or are possessed by an evil spirit.
Another short story collection by the writer, “The Gates of Heaven,” was earlier translated into Persian by Bahman Shakeri.
Cortázar’s use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness owes much to the British writer James Joyce and other modernists, but his main influence derives from Surrealism.
Julio Florencio Cortázar (1914-1984) started writing in Spanish in the 1950’s, his short story collections includes Bestiary, End of the Game, The Secret Weapons and Cronopios and Famas.
A few of Cortázar’s short stories also appeared in a 1967 English language collection. Celebrated filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni’s film “Blowup” (1966) was inspired by Cortázar’s story “Las Babas del Diablo”.
