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A Footnote to Borges Studies: a Study of the Footnotes

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A Footnote to Borges Studies: a Study of the Footnotes UNIVERSITYOF LONDON INSTITUTEOF LATINAMERICAN STUDIES OCCASIONALPAPERS No. 26 A Footnote to BorgesStudies: A Study of the Footnotes EaelynFishburn A FOOTNOTETO BORGESSTUDIES: A STUDYOF THE FOOTNOTES EvelynFishburn hrstitute of Latin American Studies 3l TavistockSquare London WCIH gHA The Instituteof Latin American Studiespublishes as OccasionalPapers select- ed seminarand conlbrencepapers and public lecturesdelivered at the Institute or by scholarsassociated with the work of the Institute. Evelyn Fishburn rvasProfessor of Latin American Literary Studiesat University \\/hen the worl, of North London, and is currently Visiting Professorat University College, cameto an end London. Her books include Borgesand EuropeReuisited, Erelyn Fishburn (ed.) aboutthe great (II-AS, I 998); ShorlFiction b1 S4anis,h American llbmen (l 998);A BorgesDidtonarl' (in well-foundedfez collaboration r'vithP Hughes)(1990); and ThePortrqtal of Immigrationin J\|neteenth figure, would cc CenturltArgmtine Literature (1845-1902)(l98l). She has alsopublished on Borges with humour ar and England,humour, allusion, Cabbala, and theJewishimaginary. other one,that 1 Admittedly,l This paperwas first presentedas the valedictorylecture by ProfessorFishburn in the Argentinep the Henry Thomas Room, Universityof North London, on 7 February2001. havea'when I - andjudging surely havebeet ary history. But some 14biogral gradualreissues tion the invalu: Bernds, and tt Borgesianstudi, tenceby Borges alwaysthe sam, that the things changesis thev journey rather work is entire\ and his orvn de The key pn Borges'sperma OccasionalPapers, Nerv Series 1992- of literature,i.t ISSN 09536825 this idea today, critical attentio o Instituteof Latin American Studies I In 'The Makt Universityof London, 2002 vant referencesto 2 Borges, Oeuar, lbriacionesBorgu,. persselect- A Footnote to Borges Studies: heInstitute A Study of the Footnotes t University \{Ihen the rvorldrvidecelebrations of 1999,the centenaryof Borges'sbirth, ity College, came to an end it seemedas if nothing elsecould, or perhapsshould, be said ,hburn(ed.) about the greatwriter, yet passionateinterest in Borgescontinues. There rvasa Acionaryt(in well-foundedI'ear that the persona,in the form of anecdotesabout the literary inNneteenth figure,u,ould come to eclipsethe writer, a dichotomy that Borgesanticipated J on Borges with humour and subtletyin the lbmouspage 'Borgesand I': 'It's Borges,the otherone, that things happen to.'l Admittedly,hardly a day passeswithout someanecdotal reference to him in Fishburnin the Argentinepress, and there is not an intellectualto be found who doesnot uary2001. have a 'when I was with Borges'story - the presentspeaker is no exception - andjudging by all thosewho claim they werepresent at his death,his must surelyhave been the most crowdeddeath chamberin history at leastin liter- ary history.But seriouscritical work continuesto be produced: apart frorn somel4 biographies,the proceedingsof the many syrnposiaheld in 1999,the gradualreissues of all his rvritings,and in the contextof this paper I must men- tion the invaluableannotated edition of his completervorks by Jean Pierre Bernis, and the growing importance of the journal dedicated solely to Borgesianstudies, Vaiaciones Borges, all testifyto this.2Yet, paraphrasinga sen- tenceby Borgeson literature,'The thingsthat can be said about literatureare alrvaysthe same:what changesis the way of sayingthem,' I stronglysuspect that the things that can be said about Borges are always the same: what changesis the way of saying.them.This emphasison the diflbrentroutes of the journey rather than the arrival on which I havetended to concentratein my work is entirely consistentwith Borges'sscepticism regarding anything novel and his own delight in the reworkingsof a lew basicideas. The key premiseeloquently argued by so many critics in the past is that Borges'spermanently open storiesare in themselvesexamples of the 'total book' of literature,i.e. palimpsestsin the senseof Genette's'livre infini'. In revisiting this idea today,I shouldlike to focuson an aspectthat hasnot yet recei'",eddue critical attention,namely, the footnotes,seeing these as imaginativedevices that I In 'Tlre NIaker', ColkctedFictions, translated by A. Hurley (Nerv York, l99B), p. 323. All rele- vant referencesto Borges'swork rvill be to this edition- 2 Bo.ges,Oruztres complites, editcd b-vJcanPierre Bernds(Paris, vol. l, 1993;vol. 2, 1999)and lhiacionesBorses. Journal of PhiLosophl,Semioics and Litcrature (Aarhus). A Footnoteto BorgesStudies add to this lhreby generatingnew readings.To adapt a metaphor usedby William ing De hagishmu Rowe in a discussionon Borges,I seethe footnotesas 'readingmachines' that at the reasoning make holesin the text to redistributeit allowing for different configurations.3 the generalinto A Witer on theEdge is the title of one of the most important books of Borges The powerpc criticism to have been publishedin the last few years:4to approach Borgesfrorn ined. Grafton obr the edgesof the paper seemseminently appropriategiven his avowedattraction footnote can sim for /asoillas,rhe margins, and /osoilleros, those living at the margins of society, cation of the sou the 'hoodlums'as he calledthem in his EdwardianEnglish. It is alsoconsistent footnotecan act, with Borges'snew prominencein coursesdealing with bordersand border cross- the author'scolle ings, at the Unirarsity of North l,ondon (UNL) as well as in other universities. a stronginferenc But first, a few generalremarks about the footnote,usually thought of as an ans footnote ever additionalpiece of information, an adjunct,and almostby implication,of sec- recognised,slight ondary importance,something that intrudesand interrupts.As once observed sources:'no need by No6l Coward, and often quoted since:'having to read a footnoteresembles In pre-Webd havingto go downstairsto answerthe door while in the midst of makinglove'.S resourcesand pal The classicfootnote ser\/es to assurescientific exactness, and when usedin The ShorttrOt the Humanities it is to establisha kind of parity with the Sciences:it un- l84l, a somewha derwritesthe soundnessof an argumentrvith empirical support as it were.In century and an ir short,it guaranteesscholarship. the gap between The traditionaldir.ision betrveen scholarly texts and the restis often defined Various dates by the useof footnotes:an essay,conveying a personalargument is not annotat- teenth,the eighte ed, whereasal1 argument with academicpretensions is, as studentswell know.6 footnote,depend But to what extentis a footnotedreference an objectivetool or a rhetorical tationsor comm device? In recentyears the footnotehas become the subjectas well asa method traced very far I of scholarly commentary.TFor example, its complex trajectory has been than the margin nrapped by Antony Grafton in his lucid, and witty, The Footnote:A Curious the result of a History.BThis is a title which criesout to be footnotedwith the information that (l 776-88)is take the French title of Thehotnote: A CuiousHistory is announced as Izs oiginestrag- gance,and often iquesde I'irudition: une histoire de la noteen bas de page, the German translation read- supportand sub runderprinting 1 r 'Reading 1\,Iaclrine/HoleN,Iachine', in 'Hor'v European is it?', Borgesand Europe Reainted, edit- cheaperto proc ed by E. l'ishburn (London, l99B),pp. 3l -6. nomically, the fi + JorgeLuis llotges:A l|/titer on theEdge, edited byJohn King (London and New York, 1993). informationit a 5 B. Hillr..t, 'Elegy for Excursus:The Descent of the Footnote' , CollegeEnglislt, vol. 5 I ( I 989), note,leads me tr p. 401; r\. Gralion, Thelbotnote: A CutiousHistor2 (Cambidge, N{A, 1997) betweena footn 6 Tlr.r,e is norv a snrallftrotnote industry in the form of a computer sofware,NotaBene, adveftised as 'your bibliographic manager'.Another; put fonvald by the Department of Engineeringof a lead- chical relationst ing unirersity,sells its wareson the basisthat: 'Footnotesmake your documentslook really fanry'. 7 Hilbert (1989).Ironically, Hilbert's study is publishedin a periodical that does not accept footnotes (ColkgcEnglislz) I Grafton (1997). u Seclbotnote 5. A Stub d theFootnotes Villiam ing De hagishenursltriinge der deutschenfussnot (anphasis added; one can only marvel :s'that at the reasoningbehind this transbrmation of the curiousinto the tragic, and ts.'q the generalinto the German). Borges The powerpolitics of annotationare often more subtlethan is perhapsirnag- :sfrom ined. Grafton observesin a discussionrelated mainly to historytexts that while a raction footnote can simply be informative and give the detailsof the place and publi- tociety, cation of the source,if precededby the 'deadly' c.f. (compare,Latin conferre)the Nistent footnotecan act,and I quoteloosely, as 'an encodeddagger stuck in the backso{' t cross- the author's colleagues'.For rvhile it may indicate an alternatir,'eopinion, there is sities. a stronginference that it is one 'which is r,r'rong'.It appearsthat Italian histori- fasan ans footnote everyone,so that not to footnotesomeone becomes a veiled,but of sec- recognised,slight. The Germans,on the other hand,only referto older German rserved sources:'no needto admit the barbariansoutside', conjectures Grafton.g embles In pre-Web days, footnoteswere a useful indicator of the range of library love'.5 resourcesand particularly of economic and political bibliographical restrictions. rsedin '[he ShorterOxford DctionarT records the earliestuse of the term 'footnote' as it un- l94l, a somewhatlate date conside
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