Borges

6 Pages 1377 Words

The task of fiction is to construct a reality that mimics our notions of the real. For some authors, the notion of the real is itself a fiction. Jorge Luis Borges, considered a master of the short story form, constructed stories that parodied the power of fiction to penetrate and alter reality. His works are riddles which attempt to subvert our very notions of the real. He combined a peculiarly literary imagination, with a variety of obsessions, incorporating probing metaphysical interrogations, as well as elements of the fantastic, driven by a narrative logic which coheres on a supernatural plane . Because of the striking originality of his works, the adjective Borgesian has entered into the literary lexicon for stories and situations that connote some deeper, perplexing situation that is impenetrable to the human mind.
Borges was born in 1899 in Argentina, and although he was steeped in the Spanish culture of his day, he actually spoke English as a first language. He grew up engrossed in the works of such authors as Edgar Allen Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson. Although he initially gained his reputation as a poet and essayist, it was not until the groundbreaking collection of stories, Ficciones, that he gained international renown. The initial stories of this book were written after a near fatal accident Borges had, when he slipped down a flight of stairs and fell headfirst on a rusty nail. After his stay in the hospital, he feared he had lost his talent, and began writing the story, Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote, as an attempt to prove to himself that he still possessed literary talent. This story, narrated in the form of book review, details the attempt of Pierre Menard, a modern author, to rewrite Cervantes’ epic Don Quixote, by reliving the experiences of Cervantes himself. It is comically absurd and contains all the essential elements of a trademark Borgesian narrative. After ficciones, he continued with a series of...