Literature Class, Berkeley 1980

&quote;I want you to know that I'm not a critic or theorist, which means that in my work I look for solutions as problems arise.&quote; So begins the first of eight classes that the great Argentine writer Julio Cortazar delivered at UC Berkeley in 1980. These &quote;classes&quote; are as much reflections on Cortazar's own writing career as they are about literature and the historical moment in which he lived. Covering such topics as &quote;the writer's path&quote; (&quote;while my aesthetic world view made me admire writers like Borges, I was able to open my eyes to the language of street slang, lunfardo...&quote;) and &quote;the fantastic&quote; (&quote;unbeknownst to me, the fantastic had become as acceptable, as possible and real, as the fact of eating soup at eight o'clock in the evening&quote;), Literature Class provides the warm and personal experience of sitting in a room with the great author. As Joaquin Marco stated in El Cultural, &quote;exploring this course is to dive into Cortazar designing his own creations.... Essential for anyone reading or studying Cortazar, cronopio or not!&quote;