ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which Julio Cortazar short stories transgress existing narrative and literary structures in order to forge new forms of contact. It utilizes the concept of intermediality, which might be considered, as Lars Ellestrom suggests, 'a result of constructed media borders being trespassed'. The chapter includes the pushing of boundaries between one mode of communication and other modlities, a whether material, sensorial, spatio-temporal or semiotic. By incorporating into the literary text the formal principles of other media, from photogaphy and cinema to journalism and telephony, Cortazar breaks down the exclusive walls of the institution of literature. The readings of the Todos los fuegos el fuego collection might be used to shed light on the role of modern modes of production and mediation in Cortazar's short stories. For Dominic Moran, the logic of parergonality applies to Cortazar's attempted differentiation between short story and novel, and to the corresponding distinction between photography and film.
