It is always Oliveira, Juan, Andrés that we hear about [in studies of Cortázar's works]. Why not La Maga, Hélène, Ludmilla? Or is the reader supposed to accept the term "man" as meaning "human being," which would also include woman? I don't think so. When Cortázar refers to the "new man" he means precisely that: man. And the term does not include the woman, although Cortázar himself has insisted he refers to both the man and the woman. On the other hand, why not only "new man"? A writer—a man—who writes in a world dominated by men, does not have to give woman equal importance. Or should he? In the course of the following discission, I propose that we forget Cortázar the man. All references will be to Cortázar the writer. And in Cortázar's fictional world, I...