Borges

Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) is, undoubtedly, one of the major figures of 20th-century world literature. His stunning work includes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and is imbued with philosophical thoughts and haunting ideas. Although he is usually perceived as an “intellectual” writer (who constantly proposes mathematical games and challenges to the mind), he really confronts the reader with crucial literary questions and defies all stereotypical understanding of what Latin American literature is or should be. Issues concerning language, reality and representation, dreams, memory and abstraction, science and art, to name just a few, appear in his work through the shape of unforgettable metaphors. The world as a huge and undecipherable library, an infinitesimal point in space (“aleph”) that contains in itself all times and all spaces, a book of sand that incessantly changes each time you read it are some of those images and will be forever identified with his name and work. We will explore such themes and obsessions in this course while trying to capture the traits of his unique “Borgesian” style.