Written in Argentina in 1950, during the height of the Peronist regime and before Cortázar’s departure for Paris,

[

] could be described as the author’s second novelistic experiment after

, which he had completed a year earlier. Although he was not well known, by the time he finished

Cortázar had already published a collection of poems (

, under the pseudonym Julio Denis), and

[

].

Whilst he would not attempt to publish

during his lifetime, he had high hopes for

. However, his efforts were in vain; the manuscript

was rejected by the publishing house Losada for its supposed excessive use of vulgar terminology (Standish 2001, 207). However, it would later become accepted that the publishers were…

3436 words

Citation: Orloff, Carolina. "El examen". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 May 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35571, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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