A provocative examination of the artistic interpretation of twelve of Borges’s most famous stories.

The absence of metonymical emphasis in Borges' prose, of the «realism» promoted by XIXth-century writers, and the vaguely nihilistic tenor of XXth-century philosophy, have contributed to the opinion that the Borgesian character is, at best, a spectral presence. To negate the individual, however, is to negate the vital experience that gives him identity, and Borges, arguably, does not deny human experience. The Borgesian protagonist is not really incomplete, only projected and perceived incompletely. Lived experience informs Borges' prose fiction, and is indeed central to his critical readings of the great masters. Even the readers's own visual experience--particularly chromatic perception--is subtly alerted and drawn into some of Borges' prose writings.

The Secret of Borges approaches the complex, labyrinthine writings of Jorge Luis Borges from a Freudian perspective. The author searches for connections between the works of Borges by analyzing his writing and gathering information on his life from various sources, including in-depth interviews with those who worked as assistants for the blind writer. This analysis examines in minute detail the writer's style and literary and rhetorical resources, following Borges's path as he evolved from his "narcissistic solipsism" to the establishment of Oedipal links. The author explores the track of fantasy associations, the treatment of feminine characters in Borges's short stories, the dreams and nightmares constantly retrieved and reiterated through his work, memory, and the challenges of self identification, and the Borgean view of the problem of time.

An obscure Argentine, after writing a few laconic stories on philosophical themes, is miraculously discovered by the French literati and goes on to become one of the most admired writers of the 20th century. Though this may sound like a rather improbable film plot, it is the story of Jorge Luis Borges, a story investigated in detail by Borges' close friend Emir Monegal. Professor Monegal, a Borges confidant for more than 30 years, has been able, as no one else possibly could, to unearth the facts from this legend that Borges has so deftly constructed around himself. The result is a narrative as intriguing as one of Borges' own stories of detection. Monegal traces Borges' development as a writer from its beginnings in the child called Georgie who lived in a rundown neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, learning to read English before he could read Spanish, to the winner of the most prestigious international literary prizes. He skillfully links Borges' personal history with his literary production, providing a fascinating account of the unfolding and eventual fruition of a creative genius.--From publisher description.

Borges' use of allusion to esoteric and metaphysical doctrines is foundation for his renovation to fiction toward metafiction. Contents: Borges and the Esoteric Tradition; The Esoteric; The Fantastic, and Borges' Metafiction; Borges' Art: Metaphysics as Metafiction; The Loss of the Self; The Loss of Reality; The Loss of Time; The Loss of Words; The Loss of Salvation; "Tion, Upbar, Orbis Tertius" and The Esoteric Tradition; in Place of Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) revolutionized the literature of Latin America almost single-handedly and left a legion of readers and admirers worldwide.Based on an unprecedented range of interviews and on research into previously unknown or unavailable resources, this is the first biography in any language to encompass the entire span of Borges’s life and work. In Borges, Edwin Williamson brings to life the little known human side of the writer: his ancestral roots in Argentina, his relations with family and friends, his passions and despairs, and the evolution of his political ideas. By correlating this new biographical information with Borges’s literary texts, Williamson also reconstructs the dynamics of his inner world—the conflicts, desires, and obsessions that drove the man and shaped his work. This major new study finally unlocks the mysteries that have obscured the life of Borges. The result is a compelling and often poignant portrait that will radically transform our views of this modern master.

Jorge Luis Borges is one of the seminal figures in twentieth-century literature. His influence on the art of narrative and on the very way people think about writing has been incalculable. All postwar fiction, from García Márquez to Fuentes, Updike to Barth, Calvino to Eco, bears Borges's imprint—in spite of the fact that Borges did not write a single novel.Born at the turn of the century in Argentina, Borges grew up with cosmopolitan parents who fostered his love of literature—and his active imagination. He spent his early youth in Europe, and though he traveled in literary circles, it was not until he returned to Buenos Aires in the late 1930s that he embarked on a substantial writing career of his own. Ficciones and El Aleph , the collections of short stories on which his reputation is based, were cryptic, playful, and vertiginously imagined. They have become benchmarks of Latin American fiction, paving the way for the Magic Realism that followed. Still, fame was slow to come to Borges, and the stature of his work was not recognized until the 1960s. Blind, living with his mother—who died just ten years before he did—and increasingly unpopular in his politics, Borges attracted extraordinary international attention in his later years that lasted until his death in 1986. Borges: A Life is the first biography to be written in English since Borges died, and from it emerges a picture of a complex man who neither courted fame nor acknowledged the literary revolution he set in motion. Based on firsthand research in Buenos Aires, James Woodall's portrait depicts the Borges the world never saw: the young pamphleteering poet obsessed by Walt Whitman and Argentine slang; the sexually timid intellectual falling disastrously in love just as he was writing his finest prose; the guru of Latin American letters whose sole aim in old age was domestic happiness. Casting new light on the background to the stories and the poetry, James Woodall also looks at Buenos Aires itself, a city in one of the most dramatic periods of its history. At the center of Woodall's depiction are the two grand obsessions of Borges's life: his celibate love of women and his loathing of Argentina's most charismatic dictator, Juan Perón.