Latin American Literature and Criticism of Universal Humanism:

The Case of Cortázar’s “House Taken Over”

Abstract

In the following essay, I propose that Latin American literature is not a fictitious space of evasion. But rather, it is a space that mirrors violent realities, power abuses, and concrete administrations of justice and power through narrative imagery. I use Julio Cortázar’s classic short story “House Taken Over” to exemplify how Latin American literature is capable of depicting social and political truth of humanistic ideology that posits itself as universal