La ciudad en Rayuela de Julio Cortázar y El Cuarteto de Alejandría de Lawrence Durrell:

Abstract

This thesis aims to carry out a comparative study of the image and function of the city in the works of Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar and The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell through the cities of Paris and Alexandria, tackled respectively in these works. Within the prospect of this main objective, our study seeks as well to approach two of the most prominent writers of the twentieth century and the two cities of exile that inspired their respective masterpieces.

In this context, the present study consists mainly of two chapters. In the first chapter, we begin with putting into perspective both authors, highlighting affinities, analogies and common points. Having done that, we proceed to approach the notion, function and significance of the city from a literary point of view. Afterwards, we will tackle the two cities of Paris and Alexandria by tracking the evolution of their images and function in literature until the arrival of the two authors around the mid-twentieth century.

In the second chapter, which constitutes the comparative part of our study, we carry out the comparison, first, between Hopscotch and The Alexandria Quartet in general, and then, between the images and the literary functions of the cities of Paris and Alexandria in both works respectively, and how they were used not as a mere external landscape, but also as metaphors, symbols, protagonists, sources of influence and psychological spaces.

Keywords: Julio Cortazar, Lawrence Durrell, Hopscotch, Alexandria Quartet, exile, literary city, literary landscape, city, metaphor