ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals the most general terms with the question of the frame, and offers a twofold analysis of Rayuela, concentrating on its search for a pre-metaphysical origin and sense of 'being'. It focuses specifically on the frame(s) of the text and the limit(s) of scriptural representation. The book begins by tracing the highly intricate implications of an analogy made by Cortazar in which the apparently distinctive modes of representation of the novel and the short story are likened to those of film and photography respectively. It examines the different ways in which Julio Cortazar represents and manipulates feminine sexuality. The book deals with a single text, Prosa del observatorio, which begins as an ironic and parodic mocking of classical scientism, and goes on to consider the debilitating effects which the latter has allegedly had on Man.
