Identity, double and active imagination - reading the short story “The Distance” from Cortázar

Abstract

In this article, I work on the interface between Analytical Psychology and literature, in a dialogue between the short story The Distance by the writer Julio Cortázar and the Jungian approach. I begin by presenting a brief synopsis of the short story, weaving relationships and associations with some concepts of Analytical Psychology. Later, making a clip in three axes of analysis: the search for the character’s identity, the archetype of the double and active imagination as a Jungian method of working with the unconscious, analogous to what happens with the protagonist of the story. Finally, I draw considerations and approximations between the author Cortázar and Jung, finding affinities in the creative process of both and the symbolic attitude towards life.