Distortions of a classical myth: Borges, Cortázar, and their Minotaurs

FERNÁNDEZ CLAUDIA N.

Lisboa

Congreso; International Conference "Recycling Myths"; 2012

Universidad de Lisboa

Within a period of two years, the Argentine writers Jorge Luis Borges ("La casa de Asterion", 1947) and Julio Cortázar (Los reyes, 1949) coincided with publishing a text -narrative the first, dramatic the other- in which the myth of the Minotaur and Theseus is revisited and recreated in versions that betray and reinvent the official Greco-Roman story. While pointing to different interests, however, both texts agree to grant the prominence to the monster, whose role in classical mythology is entirely subsidiary to the hero. In the two authors, Asterion willingly accepts death, is stripped of his monstrosity, and we can hear his voice and his motivations. Borges´ story, true to their obsessions, focuses on the problem of extreme loneliness and isolation, Cortázar, on the other hand, focuses on the political edges of the plot and delves into the exposure of the darkest human desires. Differences are not few, predictable according to the difference of their aesthetics. The purpose of this paper is to analyze both rewritings in the light of the whole production of each author and elucidate the meaning that the appropriation of classical mythology provides to both