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He was born in Belgium, grew up in Argentina, and moved to France. Cortázar’s interest in writing stemmed from the time he spent reading during his childhood because that was one of the few things he could do due to his illnesses.He is considered one of the world’s greatest writers, and he was an important member of the Latin boom of 1950s and 60s. This was a time when Latin American literature became extremely popular, and cemented its important position in the literary world. He was influenced by many writers, but some of the most important ones include Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, and Edgar Allan Poe. In class we have read stories from Poe and Kafka, and I’m sure it isn’t too difficult to see similarities amongst their writing. They all have eerie moods to their stories, they end strangely and abruptly with no questions answered so as to leave it up to us to interpret the stories as we see fit. Cortázar also used imaginative and often peculiar plots with some ordinary events and characters. A lot of Cortázar's fictional literature is a reaction to the Western tradition of rationalism to represent reality. To this end, he used narrative identity, language, time, space, and form in his short stories. Jorge Luis Borges (another Argentinian writer) featured one of his earliest short stories “Casa Tomada” in one of his literary magazines. “Casa Tomada” was later translated in to English to what we know today as “House Taken Over”.

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Uploaded by Aubrie Scully on 2013-06-12.

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Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Julio Cortazar’s “House Taken Over” use the traits often used in two literary genres, Gothic literature and magical realism. They were written in two completely different eras, but both stories use very similar characters to show the terrible effects of loneliness and fear. They both use psychologically tormented characters, some sort of supernatural force, and a gloomy eerie melancholy mood.

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Juan y Ana son dos hermanos que viven solos en una antigua casa del barrio de Belgrano. Una tarde, en la tranquilidad de su hogar, sienten la presencia de una tercera persona dentro de la casa. Frente a esta situación, Juan decide ir clausurando parte de la casa...

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"Casa Tomada - Delamort Producciones." Youtube.com, youtube, 27 july 2007,
youtu.be/7WCkhLhR2xk. Accessed 6 Nov. 2017.
"House Taken over." Youtube.com, Youtube, 12 June 2013, youtu.be/rhSh59JCLss.
Accessed 6 Nov. 2017.