TEORÍA DEL CUENTO EN LAS BABAS DEL DIABLO DE JULIO CORTAZAR

Henry César Rivas Sucari

En muchas entrevistas y conferencias, el escritor Julio Cortázar ha postulado las bases para establecer una teoría del cuento, basado en sus lecturas y modelos aprendidos de sus maestros, principalmente europeos. Su teoría está desarrollada de una manera general en su cuento “Las babas del diablo”. Cortázar dio una conferencia en 1962, en La Habana, donde exponía las características del proceso creador del cuento, afirmó que esas ideas eran sacadas de su propia experiencia como narrador:

“En ese sentido, la novela y el cuento se dejan comparar analógicamente con el cine y la fotografía, en la medida que una película es en principio “un orden abierto,” novelesco, mientras que una fotografía lograda presupone una ceñida limitación previa, impuesta en parte por el reducido campo que abarca la cámara y por la forma en que el fotógrafo utiliza estéticamente esa limitación”.

Roberto Michel, el personaje del cuento “Las babas del diablo”, traductor de profesión y fotógrafo de afición, define el proceso creativo de la siguiente manera: “Levanté la cámara, fingí estudiar un enfoque que no los incluía, y me quedé al acecho, seguro de que atraparía por fin el gesto revelador, la expresión que todo lo resume, la vida que el movimiento acompasa, pero que una imagen rígida destruye al seccionar el tiempo, si no elegimos la imperceptible fracción esencial”. Aquí podríamos postular la idea que el artista debe saber elegir ese instante, ese momento cuya significación e importancia sean superlativas en comparación con los otros espacios y momentos. El problema mayor que enfrentará el creador será entonces esa búsqueda, la lucha con el lenguaje y con el momento, la necesidad y angustia que presuponen la creación.

El cuento “Las babas del diablo” nos muestra como un metalenguaje la angustia de su propia aparición, esos significados distintos y múltiples que parten de pocos significantes nos refieren que la aparición de la obra narrativa, el proceso de su construcción, parte del caos. Pero esto origina el haber encontrado esa imagen, ese momento feliz para la consecución de su proceso creativo.

“Cuando vi venir al hombre, detenerse cerca de ellos y mirarlos, las manos en los bolsillos y un aire entre hastiado y exigente, patrón que va a silbar a su perro después de los retozos en la plaza, comprendí, si eso era comprender, lo que tenía que pasar, lo que tenía que haber pasado, lo que hubiera tenido que pasar en ese momento, entre esa gente, ahí donde yo había llegado a trastocar un orden inocentemente inmiscuido en eso que no había pasado pero que ahora iba a pasar, ahora se iba a cumplir”.

El proceso de superar estéticamente la realidad para la creación de una suprarrealidad o una surrealidad es la tarea del escritor, o artista. Esta superación está plasmada en “Las babas del diablo”, cuyo protagonista lo vive por triplicado: como narrador, supeditado al significado convencional que las palabras conllevan; como fotógrafo manipulando los ángulos de enfoque, pero sin sustraerse a los límites que la lente le impone; y como traductor, reprimiendo su creatividad, sujeto siempre a las ideas del original.

“Las babas del diablo”, obedece a reconocer inaccesible aquella perspectiva total y unificadora desde la cual se puede aprehender la realidad que se quiere plasmar en el relato. Contar una historia en primera o tercera personas, en singular o plural, o una combinación de formas sintácticas como propuestas en el primer párrafo de esta historia equivale a adoptar un punto de vista a costa de los demás puntos de vista posibles. “Las babas del diablo” es un cuento estructurado como una búsqueda cuyo proceso exige analizar datos y formular hipótesis en un esfuerzo de llegara la verdad, aun a sabiendas de que ésta es conceptualmente incomprobable y de que varía cada vez que cambia la perspectiva desde la cual se la contempla. “Todo mirar resulta falsedad” dice Michel, advirtiéndonos de que nuestra percepción sensorial de los hechos es fácilmente desmentible



STORY IN THEORY Blow-up of Julio Cortazar

In many interviews and lectures, the writer Julio Cortazar has postulated the groundwork for a theory of the story, based on your readings and models learned from their teachers, mainly in Europe. His theory is developed in a general way in his short story "Blow-up". Cortázar gave a lecture in 1962 in Havana, where he exhibited the characteristics of the creative process of the story, said that these ideas were taken from their own experience as a storyteller


"In that sense, the novel and the story are left to compare analog with film and photography, to the extent that a movie is in principle" open order "novel, while a successful photography presupposes a tight prior restraint imposed in part by the small field covered by the camera and how the photographer uses aesthetic that limitation. "
Robert Michel, the character of the story "Blow-up", translator by profession and hobby photographer, the creative process defined as follows: "I raised my camera, I pretended to consider an approach that did not include them, and I was on the prowl , sure you catch it finally revealing gesture, the expression that sums up everything, the life that marks the rhythm movement, but a rigid image destroyed by sectioning the time, if not imperceptible fraction choose the essential. " Here we could postulate the idea that the artist must know how to choose that moment, that moment whose significance and importance are superlative in comparison to other spaces and times. The biggest problem faced by the creator is then that search, the struggle with language and with the time, the need and distress that presuppose creation.



The story "Blow-up" shows as a metalanguage the anguish of his own appearance, these different meanings and multiple start with few significant concern to us that the emergence of the narrative, the process of construction of the chaos. But this raises the have found that image, that happy time for the realization of his creative process.

"When I come to man, stopped near them and watch them, hands in pockets and air between jaded and demanding pattern to whistle to his dog after frolicking in the square, I realized, if that was understood, I had to go through, I had to have happened, it would have had to pass at that time, among those people, where I had come to disrupt an order innocently mixed up in it which had not happened but now going to happen Now would be fulfilled. "

The process of overcoming reality aesthetically for the creation of a suprareality or surreality is the task of the writer, or artist. This improvement is reflected in "Blow-up", whose protagonist is lived in triplicate: as narrator, subject to the conventional meaning that the words imply, as a photographer manipulating the angles of approach, but not escape the limits imposed by the lens and as a translator, stifling their creativity, subject always to the original ideas.

"Blow-up" due to inaccessible recognize that full and unifying perspective from which to grasp the reality that you want to capture in the story. Telling a story in first or third person, singular or plural, or a combination of syntactic forms as proposed in the first paragraph of this history is to take a view at the expense of other possible views. "Blow-up" is a story structured as a search process which requires analysis of data and hypotheses in an effort to reach the truth, even knowing that it is conceptually unverifiable and that changes every time you change the perspective from which it is viewed. "The whole look is falsehood," says Michel, warning us that our perception of events is easily desmentible

The story "Blow-up" shows as a metalanguage the anguish of his own appearance, these different meanings and multiple start with few significant concern to us that the emergence of the narrative, the process of construction of the chaos. But this raises the have found that image, that happy time for the realization of his creative process.


"When I come to man, stopped near them and watch them, hands in pockets and air between jaded and demanding pattern to whistle to his dog after frolicking in the square, I realized, if that was understood, I had to go through, I had to have happened, it would have had to pass at that time, among those people, where I had come to disrupt an order innocently mixed up in it which had not happened but now going to happen Now would be fulfilled. "

The process of overcoming reality aesthetically for the creation of a suprareality or surreality is the task of the writer, or artist. This improvement is reflected in "Blow-up", whose protagonist is lived in triplicate: as narrator, subject to the conventional meaning that the words imply, as a photographer manipulating the angles of approach, but not escape the limits imposed by the lens and as a translator, stifling their creativity, subject always to the original ideas.



"Blow-up" due to inaccessible recognize that full and unifying perspective from which to grasp the reality that you want to capture in the story. Telling a story in first or third person, singular or plural, or a combination of syntactic forms as proposed in the first paragraph of this history is to take a view at the expense of other possible views. "Blow-up" is a story structured as a search process which requires analysis of data and hypotheses in an effort to reach the truth, even knowing that it is conceptually unverifiable and that changes every time you change the perspective from which it is viewed. "The whole look is falsehood," says Michel, warning us that our perception of events is easily desmentible