Borges, Language and Reality

The Transcendence of the Word

Alfonso J. García-Osuna

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9783319959115
• eBook ISBN: 9783319959122
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Literature

This book brings together the work of several scholars to shed light on the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges' complex relationship with language and reality. A critical assumption driving the work is that there is, as Jaime Alazraki has put it, 'a genuine effort to overcome the narrowness that Western tradition has imposed as a master and measure of reality'in Borges' writing. That narrowness is in large measure a consequence of the chronic influence of positivist approaches to reality that rely on empirical evidence for any authentication of what is 'real'.This studyshows that, in opposition to such restrictions, Borges saw in fiction, in literature, the most viable means of discussing reality in a pragmatic manner. Moreover, by scrutinisingseveral of the author's works, it establishes signposts for considering the truly complicated relationship that Borges had with reality, one that intimately associates the 'real' with human perception, insight and language.

Jorge Luis Borges

Selected Book-Length English-Language Publications

1. Alifano, Roberto. Twenty-four Conversations with Borges, Including A Selection of Poems and Interviews, 1981–1983. New York: Grove Press, 1984.
2. Barnstone, Willis. Borges At Eighty: Conversations . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982.
3. Borges, Jorge Luis. The Aleph and Other Stories, 1933–1969, Together With Commentaries and an Autobiographical Essay . Edited and translated by Norman Thomas DiGiovanni. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1970.
4. Borges, Jorge Luis. The Aleph (Including the Prose Fictions From the Maker) . Translated by Andrew Hurley. New York: Penguin, 2004.
5. Borges, Jorge Luis and Delia Ingenieros. Ancient Germanic Literatures . Translated by M. J. Toswell. Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2014.
6. Borges, Jorge Luis and María Kodama. Atlas . Translated by Anthony Kerrigan. New York: Dutton, 1985.
7. Borges, Jorge Luis. Baruch Spinoza . Translated by Yirmiyahu Yovel. Oakland CA: Okeanos Press, 1990.
8. Borges, Jorge Luis, Silvina Ocampo and Adolfo Bioy Casares, editors. The Book of Fantasy . New York: Viking Penguin, 1988.
9. Borges, Jorge Luis. The Book of Imaginary Beings . Translated by Margarita Guerrero. New York: Dutton, 1969.
10. Borges, Jorge Luis. The Book of Sand . Translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1977.
11. Borges, Jorge Luis. “ Brodie’s Report,” Including the Prose Fiction from “In Praise of Darkness.” Translated by Andrew Hurley. New York: Penguin Books, 2005.
12. Borges, Jorge Luis and Adolfo Bioy Casares. Chronicles of Bustos Domecq . Translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1979.
13. Borges, Jorge Luis. The Circular Ruins . Translated by Anthony Bonner. New York: Umlaut, 1983.
14. Borges, Jorge Luis. The Congress . Translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author. London, Enitharmon Press, 1974.
15. Borges, Jorge Luis, et al. The Congress of the World . Milan: F.M. Ricci, 1981.
16. Borges, Jorge Luis and Osvaldo Ferrari. Conversations . Translated by Jason Wilson. London; New York: Seagull Books, 2014.
17. Borges, Jorge Luis. Deathwatch on the Southside . Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. Cambridge, MA: Grolier, 1968.
18. Borges, Jorge Luis. Doctor Brodie’s report . Translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1972.
19. Borges, Jorge Luis. Dreamtigers . Translated by Antonio Frasconi, Mildred Boyer and Harold Morland. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964.
20. Borges, Jorge Luis. Evaristo Carriego: A Book About Old-Time Buenos Aires . Translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1984.
21. Borges, Jorge Luis. Everything and Nothing . Translated by Donald A. Ya...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Introduction: Borges, or the Geography of Sentience
• Borges and the Third Man: Toward an Interpretation of ‘Unánime noche’ in “The Circular Ruins”
• Borges and Nietzschean Ethics: Another Branch of Fantastic Literature?
• Ireneo Funes: Superman or Failure? A Husserlian Analysis
• Contradictory Rhetoric: Disassembling “Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote”
• Meetings of Anger: Borges on Metaphor
• Borges, Lorca and Jung as Labyrinth Makers
• The Tlönian Cone
• Incomplete Works: Borges’ Literary Idealism
• Borges, Ethics, and Evil
• Back Matter