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Julio Cortazar's 'Continuidad de los parques' can be described as a stalker narrative in two different senses. Not only is it a story about a stalker with murderous intentions, it is also a story in which the reader is turned into a stalker. Modalization in verbs, or the use of the subjunctive and qualifiers, has been discussed by critics such as Tzvetan Todorov as a characteristic of the fantastic in literature. What has not been studied is the alternating use of aspect in the past, here between the verb tenses the preterite and the imperfect, as a technique that aids in the subtle creation of the reader as a stalker. Cortazar uses these two verb tenses to form and shape the narrative, moving it in the desired direction and, in the process, aiding in his creation of the image of the stalker. Both the careful manipulation of the preterite and the imperfect and the careful interplay between the two are the vehicle of invasion, an invasion perpetrated by the stalker, in which the reader is made complicit. Keywords: Julio Cortazar, Latin American narrative, linguistic analysis of literature, metafiction, twentieth-century fiction, Julio Cortazar's 'Continuidad de los parques' can be described as a stalker narrative in two different senses. Not only is it a story about a stalker with murderous intentions, it [...]

Fifty years ago, J. D. Salinger published Nine Stories, his second book and arguably the highpoint of his foreshortened publishing career. Nine Stories was the best-selling collection that introduced and [...]

A variety of well-known writers, politicians, public officials, and other celebrities with diverse political backgrounds recommend books worthy of holiday giving.

Byline: Isaac Chotiner Image credit: Sasha/Getty In September of 1936, six months after Germany's reoccupation of the Rhineland, P. G. Wodehouse published a story titled 'Buried Treasure.' This short tale [...]

EVERY YEAR, CANADA becomes more multicultural, more concentrated in its largest cities, farther from its rural past. According to the census, that is; you'd be hard-pressed to know it from [...]

Peter Filkins' new book of poems, After Homer, has just appeared from George Braziller. He teaches writing and literature at Simon's Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Once [...]

While Robert Ross' major field is postcolonial literature, he has long taken an interest in postwar German fiction. He currently lives in Aachen, Germany. Book Info:THE HOTHOUSE Wolfgang Koeppen Translated [...]

Charlotte Bacon's radiant novel traverses the emotional terrain of four generations of determined women. Linda Simon is associate professor of English at Skidmore College. The multigenerational novel often results in [...]

Some days, Jonathan Franzen wrote in the dark. He did so in a spartan studio on 125th Street in East Harlem, behind soundproof walls and a window of double-paned glass. [...]

J.B. Cheaney is a freelance writer living in the Ozarks of Missouri. Her first novel, The Playmaker, was recently published by Random House. A reddish band of wintry twilight broods [...]

Think chick lit and images of bubblegum pink and Reese Witherspoon immediately come to mind. Dismissed by some as light, fun fiction characterized by cute, girly covers, it's hard to [...]

`FOSSILISED fish-hooks ... petrified paintpots! Hide, Jennings!' gasped Darbishire. `Oh, don't talk such dehydrated eyewash,' Jennings answered impatiently. `Honestly, Darbi, I've met some bat-witted clodpolls in my time, but I [...]

By Margaret Atwood. From likely Stories: A Postmodern Sampler, an anthology edited by George Bowering and Linda Hutcheon, published by Coach House Press, in Toronto. Atwood's most recent book is [...]

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Lesbia Harford died in 1927 at the age of thirty-six. A graduate of the University of Melbourne, where she read law alongside a future prime minister in R.G. Menzies and [...]

From a rejection letter sent in April to applicants for a Heekin Group Foundation fellowship. The 10,000 fellowship is awarded each year to an author who has submitted an exemplary [...]