Window Towards Freedom

With the development of play theory,the connection between play and freedom has become stronger.After Huizinga’s Homo Ludens,which established the important position of play in cultural anthropology and made it possible to recognize the status of play as an inherent component of culture,different play theorists defined it from multiple perspectives such as Caillois,Ehrmann and Suits,according to whom the characteristics of play can be summarized in the following four aspects: play requires players’ engagement;play has constraints;play has consequences;and play requires lusory attitude.Huizinga also established the relationship between literature and play,suggesting that literature is a form of play.Based on this,many literary researchers have attempted to develop play as a medium-independent critical perspective.While discussing play in literature,the subjects who play can be divided into the author,the reader,and the text.The author’s play is brought about by the creativity of writing;the reader’s play is realized by deconstructing the text;and the play of the text is presented as a creation of freedom through the disappearance of the center caused by the contradictions and interactions of multiple structures within the stable system.Cortázar’s work is always inextricably linked to the topic of play,and the writer himself holds the importance of play in literature in high esteem.But Cortázar did not treat play as a mere pastime;on the contrary,he wanted to reach a deeper reality more than seriously through the ludic literature,i.e.,to know the other side of reality by breaking the rules and regulations.In fictional narrative literature,Cortázar’s process of creating short stories is more like a free play than novels.According to the classification of play subjects,the play of Cortázar’s short stories can be discussed in two aspects: firstly,the play in the process of short story creation;secondly,the play that exists in the short story works.Based on the compilation and summary of the writer’s interviews,critical essays,and letters,and according to Huizinga and Caillois’ s classification of games,there are three aspects of the playfulness of Cortázar’s short story creation process: constraint,engagement,and the uncertainty of consequences.Each of these three characteristics can correspond to three types of entertainment that Cortázar enjoys: photography,jazz,and boxing matches.Firstly,in the analogy between short stories and photography,Cortázar emphasizes that because of the limited length of short stories,the writer must choose the theme of the story delicately so as to make a big point out of a small one.In the analogy between short stories and jazz,our Argentine author presents us “l’état second” through which he improvises the works in an illogical way during the creation.Then,in the analogy between the short story and boxing,he argues that the short story wins by being fast,thus emphasizing the rhythm of the narrative.Derrida argues that the force of free play not only dismantles the structure built around the logos,but also strongly affirms the vitality of life.When the stable structure collapses,the playfulness of the text comes to the surface.The Cortázar short stories can be divided into two categories,analogy and exile.In the play of analogy,the distance between time and space is abolished through the analogy of characters and plot,which rebels against linear thinking;in the play of exile,the adventure weakens the distinction between the everyday and the noneveryday,and the chase dissolves the distinction between the real and the fictional.Cortázar’s original word "cronopio" refers to those creative and imaginative artists who do not want to be confined by rules.The image of "cronopios" as disorderly,chaotic,friendly,optimistic,distracted,etc.is like a metaphor for Cortázar himself.The play symbolized by cronopio seeks an eternity of play,an environment where human beings can play like children,with laughter and seriousness,strength and conviction,finding the true joy of freedom in play and literature.