JORGE LUIS BORGES: A STUDY OF CRITICISM

IN THE UNITED STATES

by

JEAN ANN BOWMAN, B.A.

A THESIS

IN

ENGLISH

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Approved

May, 1987 7ff ^ A '^^ CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. SYMBOLISM IN BORGES' WRITING 3 Lesser Symbols 3 The Labyrinth as a Symbol 7 III. RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL ELEMENTS IN 14 BORGES' WRITING Borges' Concept of Time 19 Reality vs. Unreality in Borges' Works 21 IV. LANGUAGE: THE PRODUCT OF BORGES' CREATIVITY 24 Borges' Literary Style 28 V. THEMES IN BORGES' WRITING 35 VI. COMPARISONS OF OTHER WRITERS WITH 44 JORGE LUIS BORGES Borges and Other Latin American Writers 44 United States Comparisons 48 European Comparisons 55 VII. BORGES: THE WRITER AND THE MAN 68 VIII. CONCLUSION 77 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 84

11 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

In the United States, during the past three decades, interest has been rising in Latin American literature. One explanation for this new interest is that Latin American writers Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Pablo Neruda have won the Nobel Prize for literature and brought more recognition to Latin American literary works. However, another probable reason for this interest is that many Latin American works have been translated into English and, consequently, are more accessible to North Americans. Because many short stories by Latin American authors have been anthologized in the United States and are studied by students in the United States, Latin American literature is becoming more than a casual area of study. People in the United States who never have studied Latin American authors or realized what these writers can offer to world literature suddenly are intrigued by their creations and acknowledge the valuable contribu­ tions they make to literature. As a result of this relatively new interest in Latin American literature on the part of readers in the United States, criticism of this literature has increased in the United States. In particular, there has been much criticism in the United States about the late Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, whose works are numerous and varied. Although Borges wrote for more than half of the twentieth century, it is only in the last twenty-five years that his works have been recognized by critics in the United States. Neverthe­ less, his works now are critiqued and reviewed more often than those of any other Latin American author. Borges' exhaustive approach to literature, his impressive ability with language, and his varied topics and styles certainly 2 set him apart from other authors, so it is not surprising that so many literary critics choose to analyze his works. The criticism in the United States of Borges' writing falls into six categories: criticism of his sjmibolism; criticism of his religious and philosophical concepts; crit­ icism of his language and style; studies of themes in his works; comparisons of his works with those of other writers; and works about him as a writer and about his personal life. This thesis consists of eight chapters; six of the chapters are a review of these six categories of criticism. Most of the criticism in the United States of Jorge Luis Borges occurs in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, but there are articles about him as early as 1953. Although every attempt has been made to make this paper current, Borges' death in 1986 surely will bring an onslaught of criticism of his works. Because there already are so many articles and books written in English in the United States about his writing, it is impossible to be totally comprehensive, and to include all of this criticism in one thesis. However, the most informative critiques of his works are discussed in the following chapters. Articles and books that are not mentioned or discussed in the chapters have been included in the bibliography. CHAPTER II SYMBOLISM IN BORGES' WRITING

Symbolism has been a popular topic among critics in the United States who write about Jorge Luis Borges' works. In fact, Borges' writing has been called parabolic. Ben Belitt defines a parable as "a fiction implying a comparison, a similitude in the guise of a fable, a plot with symbolic meaning" (213). Although Belitt's definition describes much of Borges' writing, Borges' symbolic style still evades a definite set of characteristics. Robert Alter believes that Borges uses symbolism to make his readers aware of "the power of the imagination and of its limits" (328). Although The Mythmaker, a book by Carter Wheelock, is probably the most extensive study on this subject, several other critics in the United States have written about Borges' symbols. In this chapter, criticism of the symbolism of numbers, colors, female characters, mirrors, and labyrinths will be analyzed.

Lesser Symbols Although the labyrinth is Borges' most famous symbol, there are a number of articles about some of his less famous s37mbols. In his study of Jorge Luis Borges' works, George R. McMurray divides Borgesian S5rmbols very effectively into three groups: "those of being, which suggest . . . order . . . ; those of nonbeing, which imply formlessness ... or chaos . . . "; and those that represent "a state of ambigu­ ity, transition, or change" (165). According to Nancy B. Mandlove, in Borges' sonnet "Ajedrez I," he uses a chess game to symbolize infinity (293). She says that Borges thinks that chess is an "infi­ nite" game and that he chooses it to represent order, logic, and finiteness (293). She states that perhaps Borges makes 4 an "attempt to reconcile chaos and order" with a chess game (Mandlove 293). In support of her conclusion, Mandlove theorizes that because chess is based on the number four, which has a square root of two, it is a game that symbolizes opposites. The two colors of the chess board, black and white, are diametrically opposed, so they, too, represent the polemic structure of the universe. In her article, Mandlove also refers to the symbolic structure of the tradi­ tional sonnet, which is the form of "Ajedrez I." Like the chessboard, the sonnet is based on the number four, since it is structured in sets of two and four. Once again, this critic observes that Borges attempts "to bring order out of chaos, to provide a logical structure for irrational forces, to encompass the infinite within the finite, to control the uncontrollable" with his use of numbers (294). To Borges, the numbers two and four sjmibolize order, but other numbers represent different concepts. For instance, Barbara K. Gold argues that Borges "has a fascination with particular numbers" and that he is superstitious (55). Gold says, in "Labyrinths in Borges' 'House of Asterion,'" that, to Borges, the number fourteen symbolized infinity, but the number nine represents a finite cycle. Borges' use of numbers as indefinite values also is discussed in Michael Capobianco's article "Mathematics in the Ficciones of Jorge Luis Borges." Capobianco explores the theory that Borges uses sets of indefinite numbers in describing the arithmetic of Tlon in the short story "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." This critic also explores the mathematics in "The Library of Babel," noting that Borges uses hexagons for rooms in this library since hexagons allow for more expansion than do squares or rectangles. Although colors as S3niibols in Borges' work have not been frequent topics for articles by critics in the United States, both George R. McMurray and Arthur A. Natella, Jr., feel that they are important. Natella has written two 5 articles dealing with color symbolism in Borges' work: "Sym­ bolic Color in the Stories of Jorge Luis Borges" and "S37mbolic Grey in the Stories of Jorge Luis Borges." McMurray dis­ cusses color symbolism in his Jorge Luis Borges. In "S3mibolic Grey in the Stories of Jorge Luis Borges," Natella denotes gray as "a symbol of eternity" (258). McMurray states that "gray signifies nonbeing, but occasionally it foreshadows death, thus also representing a symbol of transition" (169). Because gray is in between black and white and is a "subtle" color, Natella stresses that it is indefinite. On the other hand, Natella explains that the color red is also an eternal color, but it is different from gray because it represents the "cycle of fire" present in all living things. McMurray agrees with Natella's observation that red is a passionate color. According to J. E. Cirlot's Dictionary of Symbols, a standard source for sjmibolic meanings, both critics' expla­ nations of the colors are in accordance with standard color S3mibolism. A less obvious Borgesian symbol is that of women. Psiche Hughes' article "Love in the Abstract: The Role of Women in Borges' Literary World" provides insight into Borges' personal views of women as characters in his writing. Because of the infrequency of female characters in Borges' work, Hughes feels that he does not consider them equal to men. However, as this critic points out, the women who do appear in his works are "reduced to symbols and literary images, unable to arouse concrete, real emotions ..." (40). She comments that it is Borges' female characters who proclaim man's mortality and finiteness. At the same time, the women symbolize the infinite cycle of human life in his works. Hughes' theory is quite interesting, but it is rather feministic. Although numbers, colors, and women all can symbolize infinity and indefiniteness, Borges' mirrors are even more complete representations of this concept. Carter Wheelock, in his book The Mythmaker, describes Borges' use of mirrors: The mirror is often used to show the redundancy of hypostats, hypostatiza- tion is essentially form, and as Borges points out here and there, every form must be single. The specific contents of a form are finally all the same thing. (74) However, the image in a mirror allows a man to view himself as other do, even if the reflection he sees is reversed. Ambrose Gordon, Jr., comments that Borges' works "are per­ haps then best seen as elaborate metaphors or mirrors in which our normal point of view is reversed ..." (207). At this point, Borges' reader is not certain of which is the real object and which is merely an image; nevertheless, this confusion is precisely what the author intends for the read­ er to experience. Another view of Borges' mirror symbolism is Nancy B. Mandlove's article "Chess and Mirrors: Form as Metaphor in Three Sonnets of Jorge Luis Borges." In this article, she states that the mirror is "a symbolic representation of the infinite multiplication and repetition of human experience" (289). Mandlove notes that mirrors surpass time because Borges uses them to show "that human nature endlessly repeats itself, that a single character exists in both the past and in the future" (289). Mandlove then explains that in some of Borges' poetry, "the form of the poem itself becomes a mirror which captures and reflects the infinite variety of human experience" (289). David William Foster observes that, although the mirror is an important symbol for Borges, several mirrors actually are necessary to project infinity. In his article, Foster says, One mirror alone lacks the ability to create depth, but several mirrors face to face echo and re-echo a vision to unrecognizable and hence profounder extents. (626) 7 The Labyrinth as a Symbol The term "labyrinth" often is associated with Jorge Luis Borges. To Borges, the labyrinth is "one of the most mysterious and one of the oldest representations of the inner life of man" (Murillo 259). In his works, Borges often refers to actual labyrinths or to the labyrinthine structure of an object; however, many critics insist that Borges' writing is, in itself, a labyrinth. There has been a great deal of criticism written about Borges' labyrinths, both as symbols and as structural devices. In fact, critic Neil D. Isaacs concludes that "there is universal recognition among Borges' critics of the importance of the labyrinth symbol or motif. But there is no general agreement about what it means" (384). The following discussion will indicate just how diverse its meanings have been for critics in the United States. Although there is no specific symbolic meaning for Borges' labyrinths, several critics in the United States feel that the labyrinth effectively S37mbolizes a person's consciousness because a labyrinth is a geometric structure that encompasses both time and space, two concepts that exist simultaneously for human beings. In his article "Notes on Borges' Labyrinths," Frank Dauster explains that a labyrinth is a "mystical experience" and that it provides "a simul­ taneous panorama of all space and all time" (143). Dauster further emphasizes the importance of the labyrinth in Borges' writing by describing it as analogous to life: "... those who reach the center of the labyrinth, i.e., who perceive the meaning of their own existence almost invariably die" (147). Naturally, many of Borges' plots involve characters' reaching the center of a labyrinth and gaining understanding of time and space. Like Dauster's article, Ernest K. Redekop's "Labyrinths in Time and Space" deals with the "innumerable spatial, tem­ poral, logical and psychological forms" of the labyrinth (95). 8 According to this critic, Borges illustrates man's fear of and confusion about temporal and spatial organization in two of his stories, "The Library of Babel" and "The Immortals." The library in the first story is a huge book-like labyrinth containing an infinite number of confusing symbols. In "The Immortals," the City of Immortals is an inpenetrable struc­ ture containing numerous intertwining mazes that symbolize choices each man must make throughout life. Both the library and the city represent states of confusion. On a larger scale, many critics think that the labyrinth is symbolic of more than just a man's consciousness: it really represents the entire universe. H. E. Lewald's "The Labyrinth of Time and Place in Two Stories by Borges" exem­ plifies this interpretation. Lewald sees the labyrinth, a geometric figure, as symbolic "of all an irrational universe whose multiplicity, or unknown factors, exemplifies a lack of order or apparent purpose" (630). With his labyrinthine symbolism, Borges demonstrates the dynamics of the universe and "show[s] us his protagonists as they turn obscured cor­ ners," making choices that affect the universe (Lewald 632). In his book The Mythmaker, Carter Wheelock expounds upon Lewald's idea of the labyrinth as a symbol of the universe; however, Wheelock believes that the labyrinth "is not the objective universe but the human mind" (67). More specifi­ cally, "Borges sees man as lost in a labyrinth, capable of producing mental labyrinths of his own as explanations of the chaotic Great Labyrinth" (Wheelock 27). By calling the universe the "Great Labyrinth," Wheelock emphasizes the in­ terrelationship between man and the universe. Robert M. Philmus carries the idea of Borges' labyrinths as symbols of universal time one step further as he compares Borges' work to that of H. G. Wells. According to Philmus, Borges is interested in Wells' concepts of space and time. In his article "Wells and Borges and the Labyrinth of Time," Philmus compares Borges' temporal concepts of reality with a 9 like concept in Wells' writing. Both Borges and Wells deal with "time traveling" in their works and with "The idealist universe wherein a sense of time derives from a web of per­ ceptions which contradict or coincide with or complement one another" (Philmus 245). In an analogy to the structure of the universe, Philmus describes labyrinths in Borges' story "The Garden of the Forking Paths" as "fit[ting] each inside the next like a series of Chinese boxes . . ." (238). David William Foster described Borges' labyrinths in terms of the "metaphysical elements" of "Time, Space and Con­ sciousness" (625). He thinks that labyrinths represent Borges' "belief in a 'fifth' dimension--a continuing circle of existence which by nature of its essential indestructi­ bility transcends the bounds of Time and Space" (Foster 625). In another article that deals with Borges' labyrinths, Patricia Merivale discusses several labyrinths that Borges uses in his writing: labyrinths that are "series of un­ opened doors" (210); labyrinths that are "exitless" (221); and "the labyrinths of possibility" (222). George R. McMurray comments on the importance of and con­ fusion about the sjnnbolic meaning of the labyrinth. McMurray states that in Borges' works, "the labyrinth image conveys the epistemological and ontological problems man encounters in coming to grips with an alien world he cannot understand" (161). This critic implies that a labyrinth often is Borges' symbol for the results of "blind reason, pride, or ambition" (McMurray 163). In other words, Borges illustrates how a man may lose "control over his fate" and be destined to stay in the "infinite maze of confusion" better known as the universe (McMurray 163). Borges' keen interest in the spatial aspects of a laby­ rinth is also apparent in his labyrinthine writing style. Ernest K. Redekop notes that "The House of Asterion," a short story, is a "Borgesian labyrinth" (96). He states that "Not only is this story about a prisoner within a labyrinth; the 10 story itself is a labyrinth for the reader, who has to pene­ trate to the identity of the prisoner and thus to the meaning of the story" (Redekop 96). Redekop refers to a character in Borges' story as a prisoner, but William S. Doxey refers to Borges' characters in his story "Caballo" as "chessmen" (549). Doxey says that "Borges locates them . . . [the characters] . . . not by describing their actual movement from place to place, but rather by naming the inter­ sections of streets where they stop .... It would seem that Borges has made a chessboard of the sixty-four square block area of Buenos Aires ..." (549). Not only are the characters traveling through a labyrinth, but the reader is traveling through one, too. In his article "Lover of Labyrinths," Stephen L. Weber describes Borges' labyrinthine style: We begin to appreciate the complexity of Borges' work when we understand that the labyrinth is indeed more than a mosaic of bewildering, twisting underground passages. Borges' labyrinth is nothing less than language itself. (200) L. A. Murillo says that Borges' style is both symbolic and labyrinthine. He explains that "Behind the fabric, like a skeletal structure, stands one idea, expressed consistently through a variety of images: the labyrinth" (Murillo 259). This critic further refines his definition of Borges' style when he calls it a "labyrinth of labyrinths." The laby­ rinthine style Borges uses is symbolic of the struggles a man endures in his life. According to Lewis W. Rubman, Borges uses a labyrinthine writing style in order to trap his read­ ers. "Both life and art (especially when life and art are presented within a work of art) are labyrinthal. The order of the labyrinth is understood only by its creator and those to whom he wishes to reveal it . . ." (450-451). A study by Robert Rawdon Wilson explores Borges' use of games and labyrinths as literary structural devices. In his article "Godgames and Labyrinths: The Logic of Entrapment," 11 Wilson says that "a labyrinth suggests contextual intricacies, involution and replication, and structural perplexity of many kinds: in sum, it is the massive fusion of illusion and impasse" (6). By exploring the maze-like plots of authors such as Susan Sontag, Vladimir Nabokov, John Fowles, and Jorge Luis Borges, this critic concludes that there are two types of labyrinths in literature: "those labyrinths that create the illusion of physical appearance" and "conceptual or strong labyrinths," which are mental labyrinths (11-12). He also states that "Borges has made both kinds of labyrinths and given them all manner of shapes" (Wilson 14). Another article about Borges' stylistic labyrinths is Robert C. Carroll's "Borges and Bruno: The Geometry of Infin­ ity in La muerte y la brujula." By comparing Borges' use of labyrinths to the occultist geometrical logic of Renaissance philosopher Giordano Bruno, Carroll concludes that Borges is fascinated by Bruno's theories about triads, diamonds, and labyrinths. Carroll explains that "Bruno's concern for triads, diamonds, and labyrinths reflects early Gnostic sym­ bolism for difference and unity ..." (324). Bruno also believes that the infiniteness of the universe is akin to that of a labyrinth. Carroll explains that in his story "La muerte y la brujula," Borges' characters traipse through both real and mental labyrinths to discover clues to a murder. Coincidentally, the clues are placed so that they form a dia­ mond. At the same time, however, readers must decipher clues in order to understand the text of the story. Robert M. Philmus' article is similar to Carroll's in that it also comments on the philosophical significance of the diamond in this story. Philmus states that the locations of the clues form "a cabalistic pattern analogous to the tetragrammaton, the hidden name of God" (240). Barbara K. Gold explores Borges' use of geometry and mathematics in "Labyrinths in Borges' 'House of Asterion.'" She notes that the numbers fourteen and nine recur in this 12 story and that the House of Asterion, which is a labyrinth, represents infinity. According to this critic, the character Asterion, who represents mankind, believes that fourteen is an infinite number and that in order to escape from the laby­ rinth, "One must exhaust all of the possibilities of choice embodied in the labyrinth ..." (55). Michael Capobianco also attempts to define the infinite- ness of the labyrinth in mathematical terms. He discusses Borges' use of numbers in "The Library of Babel," noting that "throughout this work, there is a lingering preoccupation with the question of whether or not this literary universe is infinite" (53). The concept of infiniteness in a laby­ rinth also is explained in Carlos Navarro's "The Endlessness in Borges' Fiction." Navarro says that a labyrinth is sym­ bolic of the universe because it "is not a finite maze, like conventional reality, but a configuration of all possible dimensions" (402). Because the labyrinth is infinite, it represents "everything" (404). Consequently, from studying criticism of Borges' labyrinths written in the United States, one concludes that Borges indeed does intend for the laby­ rinth to S3mibolize "everything" and to represent the infinity and limitlessness of the universe. Among the many studies of Borges' symbolism. Carter Wheelock's The Mythmaker is probably the most useful because it is so extensive. George R. McMurray's Jorge Luis Borges also is an excellent reference book, simply because he divides Borges' symbols into three categories. Nancy Mandlove's article about Borges' use of chessboard, mirrors, and sonnets as S37mbols is informative not only about these three symbols, but also about Borges' number S37mbolism. However, Barbara K. Gold's and Michael Capobianco's articles provide more specific information about number symbolism. Since Arthur A. Natella's articles about colors as symbols are two of the few United States critical works on Borges that deal with this subject, it is difficult to 13 determine their relative importance. However, both articles are very interesting. On the other hand, Psiche Hughes' feministic article on women as Borgesian symbols is the only United States criticism on this S3niibol, indicating that most United States critics do not view women as an important sym­ bol in Borges' writing. CHAPTER III RELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL ELEMENTS IN BORGES' WRITING

Numerous critical works about Borges discuss religious influences in Borges' life. Because of the influences of his Protestant grandmother and Jewish childhood friends, one would expect religion to be an element in his writing (Aizenberg 4). Critics have written extensively about the religious philosophies of pantheism, existentialism, and Berkeleyan idealism. However, perhaps an even more frequent topic in criticism in the United States of Borges is his use of the abstract philosophical concepts of time and space. Although Carter Wheelock calls Borges a "heretic" and a "freethinker and agnostic," Borges makes his acquaintance with Christianity and Judaism clear not only by references to these religions but also by allegorical descriptions and didactic stories (4). In "Borges as a Writer of Parables," Robin Lydenberg observes that "the ethically based literary tradition of parable from which Borges so explicitly disas­ sociates himself bears a curious resemblance to the theory and practice of his short fiction" (32) . According to Lydenberg, Borges' parables resemble biblical ones because they are so detailed and the reader "becomes the internal subject of the parable" (36). However, Lydenberg points out that Borges' parables differ from biblical parables because his works are rather "claustrophobic and self-enclosed" (37). Because of his interest in symbols, it is not surprising that Borges should use a parabolic style of writing. In a detailed analysis entitled "The Enigmatic Predicament: Some Parables of Kafka and Borges," Ben Belitt compares Borges' writing to that of Franz Kafka. Borges refers to Kafka

14 15 in his works, and Belitt terms the writings of both Borges and Kafka "enigmatic," saying that Borges uses Kafka's "para­ bolic tactic" of labyrinthine style. Toward the end of his article, Belitt also compares Borges' work with the Kabbalah, the writings of occultist Jewish philosophers. Several other critics have devoted articles to Borges' knowledge of and interest in Kabbalistic works. Neil H. Golder's 1978 dissertation is entitled "Jorge Luis Borges and the Contemporary Qabalah." In an article entitled "Borges' 'The Secret Miracle,'" George R. McMurray notes that Jaromir Hladlik, Borges' main character in the story "The Secret Miracle," is a Czechoslovakian Jew to whom Borges bears a striking resemblance. Both men are "deeply interested in Jewish culture and the cabala; both have written expression­ ist poems; and both have dedicated their lives to literature" (43). In "Borges' Rabbinic Extraordinary Tales," an article by Matthew R. Sanders and William Sanders, these critics con­ clude that Borges is knowledgeable about Jewish culture. In support of this conclusion, they refer to several instances when Borges details the Jewish theology in his work. A more extensive analysis of Borges' references to the Kabbalah is offered by Jaime Alazraki, author of "Borges and the Kabbalah" and "Kabbalistic Traits in Borges' Narration." In the second article, Alazraki says that Borges' references to the Kabbalah are not merely incidental; Borges' knowledge of this philosophy "goes far beyond a fortuitous familiarity" (Alazraki 185). According to Alazraki, Borges has several Kabbalistic works in his library, which undoubtedly have had an impact on his writing. Alazraki believes that Borges has studied the Kabbalah extensively because he follows the style of the Kabbalistic text very closely with his use of oxy­ morons and paradoxes (206-207). Although Borges' knowledge of Judaism clearly is very extensive, his understanding of Christian doctrine and texts perhaps is even broader. David William Foster indicates the 16 influence of the Bible on Borges' writing. Foster says that "the idea of a one, of a universal symbol, a perfect philos­ ophy or myth, of an Ultimate Book that will contain all the others and be the final key to the universe--of a Bible, in short--is manifest in several works" (348). One other inter­ esting study about Borges' use of Christian themes and motifs is John Dominic Crossan's Raid on the Articulate: Comic Eschatology in Jesus and Borges. In this book, Crossan com­ pares Borges' writing to the various literary forms within the Bible, including proverbs, parables, and beatitudes. He studies Borges' methodology and includes comparisons of the use of time and people in both Borges' works and the Bible. That Borges often fictionalizes history is common knowl­ edge among his readers. Furthermore, at times, Borges seems to develop his own theology based on Christianity. Carter Wheelock's article "Borges, Courage, and Will" is a study of Borges' preoccupation with human beings' struggling against evil in the world. Wheelock says that, in Borges' stories about good and evil, the Christian elements of "faith, and courage of will" are present. Borges stresses that duels are man's way of struggling against conflict. On the other hand, observes Wheelock, Borges feels that if there were no conflicts in the world, man would not have "to think or to create . . . [his] . . . own meaning" (378). The human search for one's identity and the Christian implications of such a search are frequent themes for Borges' writing. For instance, Edna Aizenberg writes in "Borges and the Book of Job" that the biblical Book of Job is one of Borges' favorite literary works and that it "contains the theme and technique around which the Argentine author has built his literature" (90). Job, the "God-fearing man . . . who suffers without sinning," is the archetype for a number of Borgesian characters (Aizenberg 90). Like "the ancient author of Job," Borges takes the concept of a man's blindly searching for meaning in his life and makes it into a myth 17 (Aizenberg 90). Literary characters that resemble Job are abundant in other twentieth-century literature. The theme of man's struggle to overcome hardships placed in his life for no apparent reason is found in contemporary works by writers such as William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and Edward Lewis Wallant. Another work by Aizenberg entitled The Aleph Weaver; Biblical, Kabbalistic and Judaic Elements in Borges is a summary of both the Christian and Jewish influences in his writing. This book, which consists of one part on Judaism and one part on Christianity, explains Borges' interest in these two doctrines. The Aleph Weaver is biographical in its approach and attributes Borges' knowledge of Judaism and the Kabbalah to his attending school with Jewish children. Borges' paternal grandmother, who lived with his family, was a very religious Protestant who "knew . . . [the] . . . Bible by heart" (Aizenberg 4). Although religion is a philosophy, it is possible to separate religous influences from philosophical influences. Among the philosophies that Borges incorporates in his writing are pantheism, existentialism, and idealism. At least three critics have discussed the element of pantheism in Borges' work. In Jorge Luis Borges, George R. McMurray gives one example of pantheism in Borges' work as his use of the indi­ vidual to represent Universal Man (59). McMurray notes that, according to pantheistic doctrine, "God is the essence of everything, and reality comprises a single being, of which all things are modes, moments, members, appearances, or pro­ jections" (78). In a comparison of Edgar Allan Poe and Jorge Luis Borges, Maurice J. Bennett refers to the universe as an "emanation of God" and a "sacred text" (267). In opposition to this doctrine of pantheism, Borges also uses the annihi­ lation of individual identity" (McMurray 79). In The Myth- maker. Carter Wheelock calls pantheism "Borges' depiction of the arrival at transcending knowledge" (9). Wheelock later 18 discusses that in Borges' "The Writing of God," God is not "any particular God"; God is "Being, the universe" (122). Emir Rodriguez Monegal, in "Borges: The Reader as Writer," states that, stylistically, Borges sees pantheism in "The God's Script" as a transition "between the magical scripture of a god which the priest searches for, and the vision of the universe as a total scripture of God" (125). Another philosophy that supports Borges' ideas about pan­ theism is existentialism. Mary McBride's article "Jorge Luis Borges, Existentialist" describes how Borges uses existentialism to show that "existence has no meaning for a human being except the meaning created by that individ­ ual 's experience" (401). According to McBride, in Borges' story "The Aleph," he uses the following four existen- tialistic ideas: 1) it is impossible to know truth; 2) the personality is determined by one's expe­ rience and therefore changes constantly; 3) language is expressed and interpreted according to experience and thus is unre­ liable as a means of communication; 4) men build up masks to conceal reality, and thus render real communication impossible. (401) In Jorge Luis Borges, George R. McMurray notes Borges' interest in idealism, the philosophy that is "the most visible and the most useful for depicting the fragility of things and the illusory nature of reality in general" (53). Idealists believe that "material objects are ideas in our minds, with no independent existence" (McMurray 53). Cer­ tainly, merging of content with language in Borges' stories and his extensive use of metaphor exemplify the influence of idealistic philosophy on him. Nicolas Shumway and Thomas Sant indicate in "The Hedonic Reader: Literary Theory in Jorge Luis Borges" that the sixteenth-century philosopher George Berkeley is influential on Borges' beliefs. In "La encrucijada de Berkeley," ("Berkeley at the Crossroads") Borges comments 19 that Berkeley is "the very source of my own thought" (Shumway and Sant 40). According to Ronald Christ's The Narrow Act; Borges' Art of Allusion, Borges' interest in metaphysics can be traced to Berkeley's philosophy (18). Burton Hatlen has written an article entitled "Borges and Metafiction," in which he defines metafiction as "a fiction which forces us to become conscious of the nature and significance of the 'fictioning' process itself" (133).

Borges' Concept of Time It is not surprising that time and timelessness are major concerns in Borges' writing since it is from "the idealist universe wherein a sense of time derives from a web of perceptions which contradict or coincide with or comple­ ment one another ..." (Philmus 245). Consequently, a number of articles about Borges' treatment of time have been written by United States critics. Robert M. Philmus labels this use of time "the universal substratum of perception" (243). However, Albert I. Bagby surmises that Borges never defines time but that he infers that "time is thought of not as absolute and uniform, but rather as an infinite series of times . . ." (101). According to Bagby, Borges believes that each moment is "autonomous" (103). Another critic who believes in Borges' "autonomy of each instant" is Howard M. Eraser. Eraser defines these separate instances as "simultaneous in universal time" (179). In Eraser's article "Points South; Ambrose Bierce, Jorge Luis Borges, and the Fantastic," he points out several methods Borges uses in treatment of time; "in medias res narrative, insertion or expository material . . . , and a confrontation between the protagonists and their inevitable destiny" (174). Holly Mikkelson agrees with Bagby's and Eraser's def­ initions of Borges' treatment of time. In "Borges and the Negation of Time," she says that Borges feels that "there is no time outside of the present moment which each individual 20 experiences" (Mikkelson 92). This critic cleverly explains Borges' problems with time in his writing as a result of lan­ guage barriers. She says that the language he uses "is a reflection of the traditional concept of time," thus inhibi­ ting Borges' ability to depict time as he sees it (Mikkelson 93). In order to combat this problem of writing about time, Borges adapts his language skills to include a variety of symbols for time. According to Albert I. Bagby, Borges believes that time and eternity are "interlinked" (104). As difficult as it may be to demonstrate this relationship, Borges succeeds in doing so with his use of circles. Holly Mikkelson explains that Borges' circular technique in "Las ruinas circulares" is effective in illustrating infinity since the story has "no coneivable beginning or end" (97). Borges' writing style is not his only circular motif; he also uses geometrical shapes to represent eternity. Robert C. Carroll's "Borges and Bruno: The Geometry of Infinity in 'La muerte y la brujula'" is a study of Borges' geometrical sym­ bolism. In the article, Carroll states that a sphere is Borges' metaphor for theological history (324). The labyrinth also is used frequently as a temporal metaphor. Ernest K. Redekop observes that the library in "The Library of Babel" and the city in "The Immortals" are both labyrinthine structures that represent distorted time (98-99). Because the time in these structures is nonsequen­ tial, Redekop concludes that Borges is interested in "the fundamental nature of the relation of past to the present . . ." (97). Two techniques that Borges uses to express his sense of time are his "jumping from book to book" (Navarro 398) and his making time "stand still" (McMurray 45). In Carlos Navarro's article, he discusses Borges' habit of mentioning a book and then jumping "through the many levels of time, space, and thought" to another book" (398). In "Borges' 21 'The Secret Miracle,'" George R. McMurray observes that this story is a story within a story and that the "plot becomes thoroughly confused when time stands still ..." (45). Borges accomplishes this feat by repeating motifs. Regardless of his techniques, Borges' writing has a quality of infiniteness. In comparing Borges' and G. K. Chesterton's works, Robert Gillespie explains this qual­ ity by saying that "the elements Borges concocts his stories out of are infinite and timeless, because he believes in reducing a man's whole life to only a few moments or episodes" (224). This quotation explains Borges' mastery of combining reality and distorted temporality.

Reality vs. Unreality in Borges' Works Borges is an author whose work is saturated with his beliefs about what is real and what is not. Indeed, Borges is influenced both by belletristic works, (aesthetic fictions) and by philosoph­ ical ideas, psychological concepts, mathematical theories, and religious doctrines that attempt to define the borders between illusion and reality and between deception and truth. (Howard 410) Borges tries to separate reality from unreality, but he concedes that "everything and anything that can be imag­ ined really can happen . . ." (Benevento 128). What Joseph J. Benevento concludes in his "An Intro­ duction to the Realities of Fiction" is that there is a fine line between fact and fiction in Borges' writing. Some critics define Borges' writing as "fantasy" or "fan­ tastic literature" because of his treatment of reality. However, Seymour Menton feels that many of Borges' stories can be defined as "magic realism" since so many of them deal with "the improbable rather than the impossible," and his stories do not deal with the supernatural (412). 22 Borges' idea that reality exists in the mind is another concept discussed by several critics. Seymour Menton feels Borges' writing is based on psychologist Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious, which deals with compressed time and "dream-like" reality (413). According to David C. Howard in his "Mind as Reality," Borges "taps" the subconscious of his readers in his writ­ ing because "dreams, nightmares, fears, hallucinations, and fantasies . . . are realities as significant, as terrifying, as decisive in our lives as are external realities" (413). In his introduction to Other Inquisitions 1937-1952, James E. Irby describes Borges' universe as "a dream, a product of the mind, unreal because free of the apparent limits of time and space we call 'real'" (x). Several critics notes Borges' effective treatment of reality in his writing. In "Borges and the Negation of Time," Holly Mikkelson says that in order to avoid the problems encountered by most writers when attempting to describe ideas which the language will not accommodate, Borges has had to resort to some rather sophisticated literary techniques. (97) Borges' methods for dealing with reality include describ­ ing it as a dream and using "durative verbs" and "frequentative verbs" to contrast the past with the pres­ ent (Mikkelson 97). In "Spanish American Fantasy and the 'Believable, Autonomous World,'" Carter Wheelock enumerates Borges' tech­ niques for creating fantasy, a form of unreality: 1) a literary work within a work . . . ; 2) the contamination of reality within a dream . . . ; 3) the voyage in time . . . ; and 4) the double, which dissolves human personality .... (5) In his article about his interview with Borges, Keith Botsford adds a technique to the list. He says that Borges uses images, metaphors, and symbols to illustrate reality (Botsford 731). Dolores M. Koch notes Borges alters the 23 reality of death in his writing by using "a double death: one mimetic of reality and the other imagined within the narrative" (293). Finally, critics also explore the reason for Borges' preoccupation with reality. Howard M. Eraser believes that Borges wishes to "explore the very human obsession man has to create literature as a means of understanding life" (180). In "The Committed Side of Borges," Carter Wheelock describes Borges' treatment of reality as "an impulse to creation as well as a reaction to the problems of both art and life" (374). Wheelock also believes that Borges "denies" whether or not he or his reader can distinguish between what is real and what is not (375). Because religion and philosophy are both very controver­ sial concepts that often are interpreted on an emotional level, critics naturally have varied opinions about their significance in Borges' writing. Two of the most informative essays by United States critics about religion in Borges' works are Lydenberg's "Borges as a Writer of Parables" and Alazraki's "Borges and the Kabbalah." Edna Aizenberg's ar­ ticle "Borges and the Book of Job" gives good insight into Borges' view of Christianity, but her book The Aleph Weaver is, by far, the most extensive and informative work about Borges' use of Christianity and Judaism in his writing. The best critical works that deal with Borges' philoso­ phies by United States critics are McMurray's Jorge Luis Borges, McBride's "Jorge Luis Borges, Existentialist," and Christ's The Narrow Act. As far as the concepts of time and reality are concerned, Philmus's "Wells and Borges and the Labyrinths of Time," Mikkelson's "Borges and the Negation of Time," Menton's "Jorge Luis Borges, Magic Realist," Howard's "Mind as Reality," and Wheelock's "Spanish American Fantasy and the Believable, Autonomous World" are the most informa­ tive works. CHAPTER IV LANGUAGE: THE PRODUCT OF BORGES' CREATIVITY

Before Jorge Luis Borges' style of writing can be analyzed, it is necessary to examine his use of language. Although language is an essential part of writing, Borges uses language as more than just a vehicle for expressing his thoughts. In "Borges the Craftsman," Frank MacShane notes that Borges' "literary life has been a long struggle to liberate the word .... He is a magician of language" (354). Borges is a polyglot and is extremely proficient at manipulating a number of languages so that his writing becomes a work of art. By combining words or parts of words from several languages, Borges often creates his own language. Because Borges' creative use of language is unique, critics often explore this aspect of his work. Almost any criticism in the United States of Borges' writing approaches at least some of the linguistic elements in his works, so it is impossible to explore all the criticism about his treatment of language. However, this chapter provides a varied and representative view of critics' dis­ coveries about Borges' use of words. John Caviglia, author of "The Tales of Borges," describes Borges' creative process in the following manner: "the process which leads to language begins with a con­ course of objects in space, proceeds to a perception of an object, and thence to words as the expression of perception" (221). Caviglia notes Borges' affinity for using nouns, and he explains that Borges' partiality to them results from his desire to describe "insubstantial essences" and to be "universal" (221).

24 25 Although Caviglia's opinion is that Borges' words are "colorless" (221), David William Foster feels that in Borges' writing, "what mattered was not the words and the idea, but the feeling" (59). Foster indicates Borges' preoccupation with expressing "individual destiny" through his words (57). As Foster's article progresses, one sees that this critic believes it is necessary for Borges to invoke curiosity in his readers through his words "charged with mystery" (56). The metaphor, a common figure of speech, is a prevalent topic of criticism in Borges' writing. By using imagery, Borges enriches his writing. Nancy B. Mandlove explains that Borges uses metaphors in such a manner "that both the formal structure and the content of the poems reflect the same basic structural pattern of human existence" (289). However, John Caviglia states that "metaphors are scarce in the work of Borges, but nonetheless, repetition, leitmotif and symmetry accumulate into what might be called a fanati­ cally metaphorical vision of the universe" (222). Nicolas Shumway and Thomas Sant say that, in recent years, Borges has "softened his emphasis on metaphor" but that it still pre­ vails in his work (41). One of Borges' more complicated figures of speech is the oxymoron. Jaime Alazraki, in the article, "Oxymoronic Structure in Borges' Essays," says that Borges substitutes "myth with reason" and "exorcism with doctrine" (424). Alazraki states that using oxymorons allows Borges to "open the possibility of a completely new understanding" of sub­ jects in his writing. Suzanne Jill Levine gives as an example of Borges' use of oxymorons the title of "The Dread Redeemer Lazarus Morell," "in which the malignant adjective dread contradicts the benign noun redeemer . . ." (26). Euphemism, which is a "humorously elegant way of saying horrible things," is another means by which Borges creates language (Levine 26). In her article "A Universal Tradition: the Fictional Biography," Levine gives an example of Borges' 26 euphemisms; "he writes that Morell 'denied the burnished plate' instead of more simply 'refused to be photographed'" (26). Levine correctly points out that it is Borges' use of euphemisms that often adds humor and irony to his works. Borges' linguistic capabilities extend far beyond his using figures of speech well. Because of his proficiency in a number of languages, Borges often is able to combine elements from several languages to create a new language. Latin is one of his favorite languages, and Mary Kinzie describes Borges' "fondness for the Latin tone" as humorous (30). She notes that his Latinate style is not typical; it is "half metaphysical, half ridiculous" (Kinzie 30). Kinzie describes Borges' partiality to hyperbole when she discusses his practice of "attaching a heavy (Latin) adjective onto a looser, simpler, more understandable noun" such as in the phrases "'arduous schools'" or "'unanimous night'" (30). In the same article, "Recursive Prose," Mary Kinzie continues to expound upon Borges' creative use of language. She correctly indicates that Borges' tone frequently con­ sists of "inverted expressions" and negative words (Kinzie 31). In order to make his writing "mysterious," Borges includes large numbers of words with negative prefixes such as '"infallible"' or '"interminable"' (Kinzie 31). Although lengthy words make some writing cumbersome, Borges' writing is only enhanced by them. Saul Sosnowski associates Borges' interest in creating language with the Kabbalistic desire to understand language. In his article '"The God's Script'--A Kabbalistic Quest," Sosnowski observes that the purpose of both the Kabbalist and the poet is to elucidate and pronounce his world, to create his world, to conjure up his magical formula and thus expand his human consciousness. (384) Borges uses created words in his writing, but he often alters languages to create what some critics call "theatrical 27 language" (19). Gallagher discusses Borges' "insistent un-Spanish deplo37ment of the personal pronoun" and un- Spanish use of adjectives before nouns (19). Another good observation this critic makes is that Borges frequently chooses "the Spanish synonym that most resembles its English heteronym" (19). Jaime Alazraki, in his "Borges, or the Style as an Invisible Marker," notes that Borges often uses words in their original sense rather than as they are commonly used (327). Ronald Christ illustrates Borges' combining lan­ guages when he summarizes Borges' theories in "A Modest Proposal for the Criticism of Borges." Christ says that Borges "writes in Spanish with Latin words and achieves English meaning" and gives as an example of this phenomenon the word notorio, "which in Spanish usually retains the Latin sense of notus, meaning well known or obvious" (394). He observes that Borges uses notorio in its English sense, which means "known unfavorably or infamous" (394) . In his book The Narrow Act, Ronald Christ once again discusses Borges' vocabulary. Here, Christ emphasizes Borges' use of words "in their older or etymological sense" because they are "abbreviated symbols of the collapse of time" (33). After reading Christ's criticism, one sees the necessity of translating Borges' words literally since he often creates a language that depends on the meaning of words. Katharine K. Phillips demonstrates this point when she says that Borges shows how a literary work can have utterly different values according to the circumstances of its creations or its read­ ing, for the identical words coming from the pens of Cervantes and Menard have different meanings according to the century of their origin. (11) Many critics in the United States write about translat­ ing Borges' works. For instance, in "Translation as Metaphor: Three Versions of Borges," Alfred J. MacAdam says that Borges sees translation as "another step in this 28 endless coupling of metaphor to metaphor" (749). MacAdam interprets Borges' opinion of translation as meaning that nothing is original, including the first draft of writing. Although MacAdam's theory of writing may seem at first to be a bit farfetched, it is not so exaggerated when one considers Borges' philosophical beliefs. For a man as adept at using language as Borges, it seems that there would be no limitations on his use of words. As Holly Mikkelson, Robert Alter, and John Caviglia each point out, there are limits to what Borges can do with words. Holly Mikkelson notes the difficulty with trying to de­ scribe "ideas which the language will not accommodate" (97). Nevertheless, says Mikkelson, Borges is able to use "his literary skills to express these ideas with clarity" (93). Robert Alter describes Borges as a writer "who perceive[s] . . . sharply the limits of language" (332). Alter states that Borges uses unclear symbols to allow his readers to create meanings for themselves. According to Alter, Borges apparently thinks that language exceeds its boundaries when works have infinite meanings. John Caviglia also believes that Borges wants his readers to interpret his words instead of having their meanings defined. According to Caviglia, one limitation of language is that it is an "abstraction" and "is reduced to a variety of exclamation . . . if a 'word' corresponds to every fragment of perception . . ." (227).

Borges' Literary Style Borges' style is as complicated as his labyrinths; for this reason, his style deserves special attention. Because of the complexity of his style, it is not surprising that critics often disagree about its effectiveness. However, all critics conclude that the style is unusual and paradoxical. In a discussion of Borges' poetic style in New Schools of Spanish American Poetry, Frederick S. Stimson labels Borges' style Ultraist or Vanguard. Stimson lists the 29 following characteristics to explain why Borges' poetry is Ultraist or Vanguard: the suppression of adjectives, the dis­ carding of rhyme in favor of free verse, the use of short lines, the occasionally new, rather than traditional, rhythm, transitive verbs used intransitively, a relaxation of the rules of syntax, inter­ est in anti-poetic words, and, above all, an emphasis on image. (80) Carter Wheelock says that Borges' style changed about 1962 when he "abandoned" metafiction (359). Wheelock feels that Borges' new style is neither as complex nor as cryptic as his earlier style (361). "Absence of style," a phrase associated with Borges, appears in Jaime Alazraki's "Borges, or Style as an Invis­ ible Marker" (331). Borges often calls his works devoid of style, but Alazraki believes that Borges' works are very stylistically constructed. For evidence, Alazraki lists the following characteristics of Borges' style: the compressed metonymy, the undisclosed dream, the ambiguous use of a modifier in its etymological meaning as well as in its more normative sense, and the prefer­ ence for two nouns (pajonales and mon- toneros) full of historical and literary reverberations for the Argentine reader .... (331) Dolores M. Koch also notes Borges' penchant for creating facts that are "narrative, historical, or literary," not­ ing that, for Borges, "history is also a literary fantasy that can be rewritten" (Koch 295). Frederick S. Stimson indicates that Borges often uses Argentine themes and criollismo in his works (82). In "Spanish American Fantasy and the 'Believable, Autonomous World,'" Wheelock describes Borges' style as both fantastic and realistic. He says that in Latin American literature, realism "implies ... a narrative method" (5). Bruce Lorich suggests that Borges uses real­ ism as a technique that "does not depend upon convoluted 30 abstractions, but instead removes the physical and internal action from the flux and makes order out of . . . reality" (53). Lorich describes Borges' technique as confusing and imprecise (53). In another negative comment, this critic states that each of Borges' works is like a piece of a puzzle that is "next to impossible to elucidate ..." (Lorich 59). Regardless of what Lorich says, Borges implies confusion or infiniteness to give a magical, intangible quality to his works. Among the specific techniques that make Borges' works difficult to interpret is encyclopedism. Ronald R. Swigger describes encyclopedistic works as those that "illuminate the tendency of literature to embrace everything there is, . . ." (353). Borges not only "embraces everything there is," but a lot of imaginary things-as well. Swigger observantly points out that Borges' works are full of "both real and imagined" entries on a number of subjects. However, in The Narrow Act, Ronald Christ calls Borges' references to "existing authors and books" circumstantial (88), and Thomas E. Lyon notes that Borges' "frequent and innovative use of footnotes" is indica­ tive of his interest in encyclopedism (365). One must realize that it is only through Borges' vast knowledge of "everything" that he is able to create fictional facts. So realistic are these creations that it is difficult for Borges' readers to distinguish between fact and fallacy. To give credibility to his fallacious footnoting, Borges "pretends to be only the reader and editor of the stories, not their maker" (Rodriguez Monegal 115). This critic points out that by attributing his quotations to "a nonexistent poet," Borges instills trust in his audience, hence giving credibility to both his writing and his "research" (115). Another of Borges' techniques that must be discussed is his predilection for first person narration. It is often difficult to distinguish between real and imaginary narrators since Borges never really identifies his narrators. 31 Nevertheless, Borges carefully crafts his stories so that the reader will feel as if he and Borges have the same point of view. However, as Thomas E. Lyon notes, the readers trust the narrator only until it becomes evident that "this first person narrator has no existence in the supposedly true his­ tory he recounts" (365). Lyon explains that the narrator "casts doubt on the truth of many things" in order to confuse the reader and to create distance from him (365). In a study on perspectivism, Arthur Efron refers to Borges' use of "authorial omniscience." Efron believes that when Borges describes a private experience, he cannot be omniscient; Borges as narrator must "ask questions and offer his guess to the reader" (167). Both Thomas E. Lyon and David William Foster mention that Borges himself often acts as narrator. Lyon notes that Borges often begins a story with "I" and then "retreat[s] into the background" (366). This "shifting narrator" promotes distance between Borges and his audience (366). Foster believes that, with this technique, Borges manifests his ideologies in his writing. As Foster points out, Borges' "fantasies" are not just the result of his creativity; these creations are therapeutic to Borges' "metaphysical anguish" (347). In "Evident Words," David Gallagher defines Borges' use of "disparate enumerations" as "his habit of choosing two or three disparate scenes to symbolize a man's life" (21). Gallagher lists enumeration as a stylistic device that, along with oxymorons and hypalages, creates "splendid, lapidary, self-sufficient sentences" (Gallagher 23). Ned J. Davison praises Borges' smooth style, stating that Borges' "usual pattern is to rework and polish his ideas and creations in order to arrive at the most appropriate form" (1). Gene Bell-Villada, in Borges and His Fiction, notes that Borges "retains human emotion but reserves it exclusively for the high point of narrative, polishing it, refining it, revi­ talizing and shaping it to the context" (39). 32 Naturally, because Borges is so concerned with style, the topic of aesthetics appears frequently in criticism about his works. Several critics regard Borges' use of allusion as a part of his aesthetics. Jaime Alazraki calls allusion Borges' "language of love" (62), but Ned J. Davison explains that Borges alludes to things by repeating words and phrases throughout his texts in order to give his readers a feeling of "experiencing the same experience" twice (3). In "The Committed Side of Borges," Carter Wheelock explains that through allusion, Borges produces a "conceptual form" that "cannot be equated with the specific content of thought or language" (375). Borges' preoccupation with dualities is also evident in his style. Dolores M. Koch's "Jorge Luis Borges: A Double Death as Narrative Device" discusses how Borges complicates his plot by describing two similar events. In "The Garden o^ and in Borges' 'Garden of Forking Paths,'" Stephen Rudy gives details about Borges' use of two plots in that story. Rudy explains that Borges uses two plots "to upset any notion of plot understood as simple chrono­ logical causality" (14). "Metatextuality" is Sophia S. Morgan's term for Borges' different levels of literary laby­ rinths. However, David D'Lugo defines Borges' writing as a "binary system" (425). According to D'Lugo, this system is the organization of an assumed "reality" and another assumed "fantasy," both in sharp counterpoint to one another, but both co-existing in vital tension for acceptance in the reader's perspective. (425) With reference to Borges' labyrinthine writing style, Robert Rawdon Wilson examines the various labyrinths found in writing. He says that there are two types of literary labyrinths, those "that create illusion" and historical labyrinths (11). Carlos Navarro calls Borges' levels of plot "dimensions" of a labyrinth (398). Navarro says 33 that Borges uses not only "the three conventional dimensions, but . . . all dimensions at once" in his writing (397). Navarro explains that Borges refers to old books in order to "cerebrate omnidimensionally" (398). The fact that Borges is a literary critic as well as a writer gives readers better insight into his writing tech­ niques. Katharine Kaiper Phillips states that Borges' criticism resembles his stories and that readers of his criticism "should expect to be confounded while amused, stimulated though frustrated, provoked but not exasperated" (9). However, according to Nicolas Shumway and Thomas Sant, Borges' criticism "has generally received scant attention" (38). Nevertheless, his criticism does indeed allow his readers to understand his views of literature. Shumway and Sant state that Borges' "criticism is like no one else's in this century," and they also use words such as "epigram­ matic," "eclectic," "arbitrary," and "peculiar" to describe his critical essays (38). Regardless of what is said about his criticism, Borges' critical essays indicate his pro­ ficiency at using language and understanding literature. Because the criticism of Borges' techniques is so diverse, it is apparent that his techniques are difficult to understand and confusing. However, this confusion allows readers to draw their own conclusions from the works, which is exactly what Borges wants. Instead of specifying meanings in his writing, Borges uses ambiguities so that his readers will rely on their own interpretations of his writing and gain more knowledge from them. Borges' use of language and his style are complex; therefore, one would expect criticism to be equally complex. Of the numerous articles and books by United States critics that discuss Borges' techniques, the most helpful are the following critical works: Caviglia's "The Tales of Borges' Language and the Private Eye," Alazraki's "Oxymoronic Structure in Borges' Essays" and his "Borges, Style as an 34 Invisible Marker," Kinzie's "Recursive Prose," Christ's "A Modest Proposal for the Criticism of Borges" and his The Narrow Act, Wheelock's "Borges' New Prose," and finally, Bell-Villada's Borges and His Fiction. CHAPTER V THEMES IN BORGES' WRITING

Naturally, a writer with as extensive a canon as Jorge Luis Borges can be expected to have an equally extensive list of themes. Because there are so many articles by United States critics that deal with Borgesian themes, it is impos­ sible to discuss all of this criticism and to explore all of the themes. However, the themes to be discussed in this chapter are the major themes of death and immortality, locale, man's search for his identity, dualities and double meanings, reality, truth, entrapment, infiniteness, love and sex, reli­ gion, and violence. The themes of death and dying, as well as the opposing theme of immortality, appear frequently in Borges' writing. One article that deals with death as a Borgesian theme is Erminio G. Neglia's "Fictional Death in Stephen Crane's 'The Blue Hotel' and Jorge Luis Borges' 'El Sur.'" Neglia describes the confusion between death and life in Borges' story, noting that, in "El Sur," the protagonist's death "is only insinuated" (21). The reader never knows if this man actually dies or merely dreams of his death, because Borges does not always distinguish between the dream world and the real world. In an analysis of several interpretations of the German poet Diirer' s Knight, Death, and the Devil, Robert J. Clements notes Borges' preoccupation with Durer's knight's death. To Borges, the knight seems to be immortal and unafraid of death. Two Borgesian poems based on Durer's work imply how futile it is when a soldier "risks his life for an unjust cause" (Clements 7). Clements indicates that, in his poetry, Borges himself is represented by the knight; however, as much as Borges admires this immortal character, "his sympathy turns

35 36 to envy" (7). Borges is envious of the knight, who seems undeserving of immortality while Borges is a mortal man who wishes to live forever. In Borges' story "The Immortals," the theme of immortal­ ity appears once more, but, according to David William Foster, the exact theme of this story is the "terrifying complica­ tions" of immortality. Foster notes that Borges manages to evoke confusion about and fear of immortality in his readers by "creating a superb aura of mystery" with his writing (59). Although Borges is envious of Durer's knight's immortality, he also sees the unpleasant consequences of existing indefi­ nitely in an unknown environment. Alfred J. MacAdam illustrates Borges' apparent fear of immortality in "Origins and Narratives." MacAdam implies that Borges writes because of an existentialist belief that "the printed page preserves some part of its author" (430). As far as originality is concerned, Alicia Borinsky feels that Borges thinks that no written texts are original--"they have already been written somewhere else, by somebody else" (90). Therefore, when a person writes a text, he is "pre­ serving" more than part of his own being; he is "preserving" part of several authors (Borinsky 90). Locale is another theme that appears repeatedly in Borges' writing. In his essay "Generic Geographies," Jackson I. Cope explains that, for Borges, the city is "in one sense a confine, in another, an extension, [an] expression of the individual defined socially" (153). However, Borges uses his urban theme to illustrate the Naturalist conflict between the city and the country. For Borges, the city is not merely a setting for a story; the city is almost a living entity that feels, acts, and even controls its inhabitants. In particular, Borges is interested in the city of Buenos Aires as a theme. James C. McKegney has written an article on Buenos Aires in Borges' poetry entitled "Buenos Aires in the Poetry of Jorge Luis Borges." McKegney notes 37 that Borges' attachment to this city allows him to personify it; however, Borges rarely "portrays" the city as it really is (163). He often recreates, in his writing, a Buenos Aires of an earlier time. McKegney states that "to create visions of Argentina in times past, Borges has successfully employed an evocative technique" (163). Borges calls forth images of an older Buenos Aires by lacing his writing with historical references and descriptions. By employing a his­ torical theme in his works, Borges regresses eternally into his past. Alfred J. MacAdam says that "Buenos Aires becomes a map of Borges' soul, one he seeks to rewrite, but which he follows unconsciously" (432). Argentina and Buenos Aires are more than sentimental settings in Borges' works. Alfred J. MacAdam calls Argentina Borges' "vision" of eternity. This critic says that Borges uses "ancestor worship" in his writing in order to discover his own origins (MacAdam 429). Fellow Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato also notes that Borges is prone to a "basi­ cally national orientation" in his writing (Francis 144). However, in an article on Sabato's views of Borges, Nathan T. Francis says that Sabato thinks that Borges' cities are "vaguely reminiscent" of Buenos Aires but that the cities are unreal because they are "abstract and devoid of life" (145). These empty cities echo Borges' depiction of man's lonely search for his identity. In many ways, Borges' lo­ cales are vague, with very few clues as to where the story is taking place. Nevertheless, this clever literary tech­ nique allows Borges' readers to imagine that the locales are any place they want them to be. Because Borges is preoccupied with man's search for his identity, it is not surprising that the detective story genre is one of his favorite modes of writing, as the themes of detection and trickery abound in Borges' writing. Tamara Holzapfel, in her article "Crime and Detection in a Defec­ tive World," compares Borges' detective stories to those 38 of German writer Friedrich Durrenmatt, but Maurice J. Bennett attributes Borges' love of this genre to Edgar Allan Poe in his essay "The Detective Fiction of Poe and Borges." Almost any critic who writes about Borges' detective stories con­ cludes that it is not only the detective in the stories who must solve a mystery: Borges' readers also must search for clues to solve mysteries. Through his ingenious use of lan­ guage, Borges presents his readers with clues much like those his detectives follow in the stories. The search for one's identity or origins in one of Borges' most popular themes. Humberto M. Rasi's essay "Borges in Search of the Fatherland" describes how Borges uses Argentine elements to search for "his place in the literary tradition of Argentine" (165). Rasi points out that Borges' symbols and references to figures in Argentina's past "evoke in him [Borges] an emotional response" and are his method of discovering his identity (167-168). Marvin D'Lugo also indicates the importance of Borges' search for his ori­ gins, stating that Borges' narratives are part of a "binary system" which allows his readers to discover various levels of meaning (425). On a larger scale, according to D'Lugo, these narratives also allow readers to discover the meaning of the universe (429). Dualities and double meanings are another theme found in Borges' works. As Marvin D'Lugo points out, Borges uses "binary vision" in his rhetoric so that his readers can dis­ cern their own meanings. However, it is not just Borges' narrative that is a duality. Donald A. Yates correctly indi­ cates that Borges himself is a duality. This critic observes that there are two Borgeses: one Borges is a man and the other Borges is a writer. "Borges and I," a page-long essay indicates that Borges sees more than one image of himself. Yates feels that this brilliant piece of writing is "the most succinct version of a curious and persistent duality of character and identity" (317). Perhaps Borges' perception 39 of himself as a duality explains his preoccupation with multiplicities. Reality is a theme that Borges treats in a variety of ways. One of Borges' favorite techniques for dealing with reality is magic realism. Keith Botsford observes that "Borges never violates the possible; even, I feel, he writes firmly in the probable, and that is why he is so profoundly disquieting" (101). Indeed, what Botsford is describing is magic realism. However, most United States criticism about reality as a Borgesian theme concerns Borges' theory that reality exists only in the mind. In "The Committed Side of Borges," Carter Wheelock says that to Borges, reality is "simply the moment of a heightened sense of awareness" (375). David William Foster also notes that man's consciousness is II the final and most extensive element of dis-reality" (627). M Dis-reality," according to Foster, is a "type of atmosphere created in which both reality, what is verisimile, and ir­ reality, what is fantasy, are partaken of" (625). Finally, David C. Howard has written an entire essay devoted to Borges' concept of "Mind as Reality." In this article, Howard discusses the influence of "philosophical ideas, psycholog­ ical concepts, mathematical theories, and religious doctrines" on Borges' theme of reality. Howard emphasizes that Borges incorporates the Buddhist belief that the "world is an illusion" and psychological phenomena such as "dreams, night­ mares, fears, hallucinations, and fantasies" into his theme of reality (410,420). In conjunction with Borges' theme of reality is his theme of deception versus truth. Borges is obsessed with his search for truth, and several United States critics discuss truth in Borges' writing. David C. Howard notes that just as Borges tries "to define the borders between illusion and reality, Borges wants to distinguish between deception and truth" (410). The labyrinth, Borges' symbol of infiniteness, is discussed in Carlos Navarro's "The Endlessness in Borges' 40 Fiction." Navarro calls Borges' labyrinth "a configuration of all possible dimensions" (402). Borges uses this symbol to illustrate the infiniteness in the universe, a theme found in much of his writing. Figurative blindness is a motif in Borges' writing that relates to the theme of truth. In an article about Borges' poem "Dos versiones de Ritter, Tod, und Teufel" (Knight, Death, and the Devil) Robert J. Clements says that Borges thinks "blindness to right or wrong leads to evil, deviltry, even murder" (7). The fact that Borges himself went blind is another explanation for his interest in this particular theme. Noel M. Valis believes that Borges better appreciates certain literary themes because of his blindness. In "The Martian Chronicles and Jorge Luis Borges," Valis states that Borges "sees in a book precisely what he wishes to see in it" (51). Entrapment is an underlying theme that Borges expresses through his use of labyrinths. Borges believes that life is full of blind corners and uncertainties, and his literary games symbolize the theme of how man can become enmeshed in life's difficulties. Robert Rawdon Wilson's article "Godgames and Labyrinths" is a discussion of Borges' literary tech­ niques. Wilson also explores games in writing by Saul Bellow, Paul Valery, Thomas Pynchon, and others. In "A Quiet Betrayal: Some Mirror Work in Borges," Ambrose Gordon, Jr., says that Borges' stories are works in which "major images and themes are typically doubled and redoubled," thus creating an atmosphere of infiniteness (208). David William Foster also acknowledges Borges' interest in a multiplication of ideas, and he calls it "the theme of con­ scious repetition" (56). Love and sex, common themes in Western literature, also appear in Borges' works. In a very observant essay entitled "Coitus Interruptus: Sexual Transubstantiation in the Works of Jorge Luis Borges," Robert Lima states that "the sexual 41 theme is often secreted in the body of his poetry and prose" (407). Lima indicates that although the sexuality theme is prevalent in Borges' works, it is "subtle" (408). Borges maintains a very "dispassionate attitude towards the erotic," and sexuality in his works is merely of aesthetic value (Lima 411). According to Lima, Borges frequently uses sexu­ ality in his writing "to achieve a non-sexual goal" (412). Lima also points out that Borges avoids using female charac­ ters in his writing and that Emma Zunz is one of his few female protagonists. In her essay "Love in the Abstract," Psiche Hughes examines Borges' "reticence" to write about female protagonists. Hughes surmises that Borges' personal problems with love relationships have led him to omit female characters from his writing. Religion is a common theme in Borges' work. Not only does Borges frequently allude to the Bible and other reli­ gious texts, but he also borrows themes from these works. In her essay, "Borges and the Book of Job," Edna Aizenberg calls Borges a "religious skeptic par excellence"; however, later in this article and in her book The Aleph Weaver: Biblical, Kabbalistic and Judaic Elements in Borges, Aizenberg emphasizes the importance of religious doctrine to Borges. According to "Borges and the Book of Job," Job is one of Borges' favorite Bible books because it deals with a theme "around which the Argentine author has built his literature" (Aizenberg 90). This theme is that of the "God-fearing man . . . who suffers without sinning, calls upon the Lord to declare his blamelessness and is reminded by Him that man cannot understand his ways" (Aizenberg 90). Borges' theme of "why me. Lord?" also is found in the works of United States authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mark Twain, as well as in works of many other writers in the United States. Hawthorne's short stories often depict man's challenging God only to be punished for doing so. Twain, who also is a "religious skeptic," uses irony to demonstrate the hazards 42 of questioning God's ways. In The Aleph Weaver. Aizenberg implies that Borges' interest in Job's plight stems from the author's desire to impose order on life, thus separating right from wrong. Along with the Bible as a major source for Borgesian themes is the Jewish occultist doctrine, the Kabbalah. As Edna Aizenberg explains in The Aleph Weaver, Borges knew many Jews as a child, so he became familiar with numerous aspects of Judaism. Borges' interest in language led to his curi­ osity about the Kabbalah, which consists of mystical passages written in the "Sacred Lahguage" (Sosnowski 383). In '"The God's Script'--A Kabbalistic Quest," Saul Sosnowski draws parallels between Borges and the Kabbalist, both of whom are on a continuous search for meaning through language. If one literary technique is related closely to Borges' religious themes, it is the parable. According to Robin Lydenberg, in "Borges as a Writer of Parables: Reversal and Infinite Regression," Borges employs the parabolic technique in order to "keep the reader . . . in a constant state of confusion which opens up new ways of perceiving both the word and the world in their infinite complexity and inexhausti­ bility" (31). Because a major theme in Borges' writing is that of man's search for meaning in his life, Borges' readers also must search for the lesson in the parable. Lydenberg points out that, although Borges' parables are based somewhat loosely on biblical parables, the writer avoids using per­ suasion in his parables. Borgesian parables are intended "to entertain or to move" (Lydenberg 31). They also provide the reader with symbols that are often impossible to decipher, thus illustrating Borges' theme of man's endless search for knowledge and meaning in his life. Borges' themes are numerous and varied, and they often are hidden within the context of other themes or are expressed through a complicated literary technique. However, one of the more obvious Borgesian themes is violence. Because of the 43 number of themes in his writing, it is impossible to discuss all of them, but it is essential that the theme of violence be examined. Violence is a recurring motif in Borges' writing, and it also is a major theme. Various forms of violence appear in his works, but violent death is the most prevalent form. Erminio G. Neglia compares the cruel murder of Juan Dahlmann in Borges' "El Sur" with the untimely death of the Swede in Stephen Crane's "The Blue Hotel." Neglia points out that after reading either story, one feels help­ less and shocked by the unnecessary violence. In The Aleph Weaver, Edna Aizenberg discusses Borges' interest in fratri­ cide in the biblical tale of Cain and Abel. She says that in Borges' theme of violence, homicide "destroys the whole world because each individual is a microcosm, the universe con­ densed" (Aizenberg 114). Potential violence is a theme represented by Borges' tiger motif. Joyce A. E. Loubere notes that although a tiger is a beautiful, powerful animal, it exudes latent violence. As a specimen of nature, this animal is wondrous, but to its potential prey, the tiger is dangerous. Unfortunately, no United States critical work deals with all of Borges' themes. However, some of the works that most thoroughly cover one or several of the themes are Neglia's "Fictional Death in Stephen Crane's 'The Blue Hotel' and Jorge Luis Borges' "El Sur,'" McKegney's "Buenos Aires in the Poetry of Jorge Luis Borges," Bennett's "The Detective Fiction of Poe and Borges," and D'Lugo's "Binary Vision in the Borgian Narrative." However, the critical work that most completely examines any one of Borges' themes is Aizenberg's The Aleph Weaver. CHAPTER VI COMPARISONS OF OTHER WRITERS WITH JORGE LUIS BORGES

Although Jorge Luis Borges is Argentine and often includes Argentine elements in his writing, he really cannot be compared with only Argentine writers or with only Latin American writers. Borges' writing is universal. The following three sections will deal with comparisons by United States critics of Borges to Latin American writers. United States writers, and European writers.

Borges and Other Latin American Writers Critics in the United States have done very few compari­ sons of Borges with other Latin American writers. Among the Latin American writers who are the subject of comparisons with Borges are Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Fuentes, Pablo Neruda, Julio Cortazar, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Ernesto Sabato, and a number of Borges' Ultraist contemporaries. The works of both Borges and the Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez illustrate these highly imaginative authors' interest in reality. According to critic David C. Howard, in "Mind as Reality: Borges' 'The Circular Ruins' and Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude," both authors use the "dramatization of the hallucinatory character of reality" in their writings (409). Borges and Garcia Marquez determine, through their works, that reality exists only in the mind. Garcia Marquez notes that writings "have the power to become or to create reality," but Borges adheres to the Gnostic idea that "behind every creator lurks another creator" (Howard 410). Borges is more concerned with dreams and psy­ chology and how they affect reality, but Garcia Marquez is interested in magic and how reality is conjured. Howard

44 45 draws some excellent parallels between Borges' and Garcia Marquez' creativity in his discussion, but he does make one misleading statement; "But unlike Borges in 'The Circular Ruins,' Garcia Marquez makes the reader a participant in the creative act" (415). Although this observation about "The Circular Ruins" may be true, Howard is somewhat presumptous to suggest that reader participation is not essential in Borges' writing. Magic realism is the subject of Joseph J. Benevento's comparison of Borges, Fuentes, and Marquez. Benevento begins his article "An Introduction to the Realities of Fiction" by defining magic realism. He says in discussing "The Garden of Forking Paths," that "the real magic of Borges' story" is that it "redefines the borders of the improbable and introduces a different concept of time" (Benevento 127). Carlos Fuentes is influenced, Benevento says, by Borges' concern of narrative. Benevento explains that Fuentes' story "Aura" contains two points of view, a technique allowing readers to distinguish reality from un­ reality for themselves (129). According to this critic, Garcia Marquez is interested in how readers perceive reality. Benevento notes that Garcia Marquez' story "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" "challenges our implicit desire for safe or explainable fantasies" (130). In his conclusion, this critic states that all three authors share an interest in "the intimate bond between fiction and the real world" (Benevento 131). Because magic realism is a common move­ ment in Latin American literature and because Borges uses magic realism in his works, he certainly has at least this literary element in common with Latin American writers. In "Glimpses That Can Make Us Less Forlorn: Wordsworth, Borges, and Neruda," Leonard A. Cheever claims that Borges and Neruda follow William Wordsworth's theory that writers look for an "antidote to the spiritual disease" (Cheever 37). Both Borges and Neruda use metaphors to create emotional 46 images for their readers (Cheever 37). Cheever concludes that none of these three writers feels that the world is "sufficient for man's needs, and they invite the readers to explore, through the structures and the imagery of their poems, another way of looking at the world" (42). It is this "way of looking" that Cheever calls a "glimpse." In an excellent comparison of Borges and fellow Argentine Julio Cortazar entitled "Cortazar, Borges, and the Loss of Experience," J. M. Alonso observes that both writers share the "subject of an imaginary world invading the one we call real" (14). However, Alonso's comparing these two authors turns into his contrasting them. He notes that while Borges is very concerned with literature and an erudite reality, Cortazar "is a lyric virtuoso at portraying ordinary and unbookish Argentine life" (Alonso 14). Alonso also implies that Cortazar's stories are Gothic, so they end tragically. Borges' stories also often deal with unpleasantness, but they are not nearly as intense as Cortazar's stories because they are so elevated that the reader does not identify with them as much as with Cortazar's works. One Latin American writer with whom Borges has a great deal in common is Adolfo Bioy Casares of Argentina. Bioy Casares is a writer with whom Borges has collaborated on a number of works, and the detective story is their favorite genre. In an article about Borges and' Bioy Casares, Donald A. Yates notes that "satire is indeed, . . . the most consistent tone of all the Borges-Bioy writings" (215). In support of this point, Yates gives the example of the name "Parodi" (parody) in a collection of detective stories entitled Seis problemas para don Isidro Parodi (215). Names are of partic­ ular interest to these two writers, so it is not surprising that they often use pseudonyms instead of their own names. Although Borges is fifteen years older than Bioy Casares and has acted as "a kind of teacher or mentor" for him, Yates points out that there is a definite "exchange of ideas and 47 opinions between the two" (213). In fact, Yates feels that Borges has referred to their collaborative style as "a blend of Alfred Hitchcock and the Marx Brothers" (220). Naturally, Jorge Luis Borges, the writer, is a topic of great interest to other Latin American writers. Argentine author Ernesto Sabato has written criticism of Borges, and Nathan T. Francis discusses this criticism in his article "Ernesto Sabato Looks at Jorge Luis Borges." Francis says that Sabato believes Borges definitely has "linguistic prowess" and incorporates philosophy in his works. However, "Sabato finds what he interprets as a basically national orientation in Borges' metaphysical leanings, especially in his fascination with the nature of time" (Francis 144). Sabato also discusses how Borges has been influenced by other Argentine writers such as Leopoldo Lugones. Francis notes that Sabato is not totally complimentary of Borges; Sabato says that Borges lives in an abstract world that influences his "fastidiously overwrought approach to literature" (145). Harley D. Oberhelman's article "Jorge Luis Borges and Ernesto Sabato: Two Perspectives of Argentine Reality" is an extensive comparison of Borges' and Sabato's treatments of reality in their fiction. Oberhelman says that although the two writers' styles vary, both men employ "an almost mathe­ matical system of arranging ideas and presenting alternative solutions" (2). According to this critic, Borges and Sabato both include many references to their homeland of Argentina in their works, but Borges also includes ntimerous European elements in his works. In fact, Oberhelman notes that Sabato "accuses Borges of lacking the sensitivity to understand or sympathize with the rural farm worker . . . and consequently of being unable to comprehend the totality of his nation" (3). However, Oberhelman concludes that both men truly are interested in Argentina but that their treatments of it differ. 48 Borges' influence on other Argentine writers is evident in the Ultraist movement in Argentina. Among the many crit­ ical works on Ultraism are works by David L. Oberstar, Thorpe Running, and Frederick S. Stimson. According to Oberstar, Ultraism is a movement that began in Spain in the 1940s. Borges, who lived in Spain for a while, "synthesized the most important principles of this eclectic movement" (Oberstar 422). Some important elements of Ultraism are the use of metaphors, free verse, "unusual spacing and varied sizes of type" (Oberstar 422-423). Ultraists also eliminate punctu­ ation, and they use the device of synesthesia. Oberstar explains that Borges, along with his small following of Argentine Ultraists, founded Proa, a literary journal dealing with Ultraism. Thorpe Running's book Borges' Ultraist Movement and its Poets is a detailed discussion of Borges' Ultraism and of the works of other Ultraists. Among the writers discussed in Running's book are Eduardo Gonzalez Lanuza, Nora Lange, Francisco Luis Bernardez, Leopoldo Marechal, Ricardo Molinari, Oliverio Girondo, and Ricardo Giiiraldes. In a chapter called "Ultraismo" in his New Spanish American Schools of Poetry, Frederick S. Stimson gives another account of Borges' Ultraist movement in poetry. Stimson explains that "to modernize Argentinian literature, Borges introduced Peninsular Ultraism to Argentina" (75). According to Stimson, the Argentine term for Ultraism is Vanguardism.

United States Comparisons United States critics understandably have compared Borges' work more frequently to those of United States authors than to those of Latin American authors. However, the most likely explanation for the larger number of comparisons with United States authors is that Borges has more in common with them than most of his fellow Latin American writers. 49 In his article "Forking Narratives," Ronald Christ states that for many years, "Latin American writers often looked north for inspiration and for solutions to esthetic problems; North American writers seldom, if ever, looked south" (75). However, as Christ points out, John Barth's 1967 essay "The Literature of Exhaustion" ended "this period of one-sided literary relations" (75). This change also resulted from the ever-growing prominence of Jorge Luis Borges. North American writers have great respect for Borges' writing, but Borges himself is influenced by North American writers. In fact, Alexander Coleman notes that "American authors have at times had even more impact on him than . . . DeQuincey, Sir Thomas Browne, Shaw, Chesterton, or Wells," British authors to whom Borges often is compared (310). Borges is intrigued by both nineteenth-century and twentieth-century North American authors. Criticism indicates that among the nineteenth-century writers who interest Borges are Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mark Twain, and Henry James. His favorite North American writer of this period is Edgar Allan Poe, but Borges also admires Nathaniel Hawthorne, Stephen Crane, and Ambrose Bierce. In "Borges as Concomitant Critic," Katharine Kaiper Phillips explores Borges' criticism of both European and American authors. She states that Borges, whom she calls a "new" critic, often "is more interested in the personality of the writer" than in his writing (Phillips 13). Of the nine­ teenth-century authors, Borges praises Walt Whitman because he is an intense person and his writings are more than just superficial words (Phillips 13). This critic observes that Borges is entertained by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville because they use "an element of the arcane" in their narration, a favorite device of Borges (Phillips 13-14). 50 Alexander Coleman expounds upon his opinion that Borges admires North American writers by naming Edgar Allan Poe as "a prime mover in defining Borges' aesthetic of narration" (315). Borges' love for detective stories definitely is a trait he shares with Poe, and Coleman notes similarities between Borges' detective Lonnrot and Poe's detective Dupin. Nevertheless, it is Ralph Waldo Emerson whom Coleman refers to as "at the heart-of Borges' Aesthetics" (319). Appar­ ently, Coleman believes that both authors tend "to abstract and universalize" (319). Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Herman Melville are mentioned by Coleman as having an impact on Borges although not as great an impact as that of Poe or Emerson. According to Coleman, Borges' treatment of Whitman is "contradictory" (322). Borges and Whitman share the idea of a universal self, but Borges' self is symbolic and theo­ retical, whereas Whitman's self is "corporeal" (Coleman 322). In his 1982 dissertation, Robert Morris Oxley mentions enu­ meration as a technique shared by Borges and Whitman. Coleman also notes that Borges has studied Mark Twain's works and believes they are "comical" but discovers much "nihilism" in them (327). In a comment that one would expect regarding Borges' opinion of Henry James, Coleman says that "Borges has no patience whatsoever with James's novels" (328). Although both Borges and James are interested in language and its effect upon the reader, James's style is "decisively artificial," unlike Borges'. As indicated by Coleman's article, Edgar Allan Poe is one of Borges' favorite North American writers. Reinhard H. Friederich compares Borges' story "El Sur" with Poe's "Tale of the Ragged Mountains" in an article entitled "Necessary Inadequacies." Friederich comments that criticism of Poe's fiction often is conflicting but that Borges greatly admires Poe. Parallels Friederich sees between Borges' and Poe's stories are that "both fictional modes refuse to blend in the 51 two narratives," and both stories contain uncontrollable "dream fantasies" (161). The critic indicates that the two stories ask the question "how can intensity and excitement grow out of constant stasis and boredom?" (Friederich 161). Julia A. Kushigian's article "The Detective Story Genre in Poe and Borges" compares both writers' approach to this genre. She states that Borges' "may bend the limitations" of the detective story which were invented by Edgar Allan Poe (Kushigian 29). However, this critic praises Borges and his precursor Poe, observing that this genre "is a far more demanding area of literature, and Poe and Borges ex­ periment in it quite skillfully" (Kushigian 29). Critic Maurice J. Bennett sees several similarities between Borges and Poe. Bennett explores "man's existential isolation" in the fiction of both writers and says that they both react to this isolation as Romantics or post-Romantics. Both men have "faith in cosmic unity" and have the "modern sense of fragmentation" (Bennett 262). Bennett also says that Borges praises, criticizes, and imitates Poe more often than any other writer (263). The article discusses the detective story and says that, for both writers, it "stands as a formal antithesis to the chaos of human experience" (Bennett 265). Several doctrines regarding detective fiction also are mentioned in the article. Bennett says that "Poe's detective fiction is profoundly mimetic" (266). In "A Borges Poem on Poe," Robert Lima tells of Borges' interest in and admiration for Edgar Allan Poe. He gives as an example a poem that Borges wrote about Poe, complimenting Poe's use of symbolism and his daring technique. Writing a poetic tribute to or an essay about a writer or philosopher whom he admires is a typical Borgesian way of expressing appreciation. Another author for whom Borges has great admiration is Nathaniel Hawthorne. In his comparison of Borges and Hawthorne, John Wright attributes Borges' interest in 52 Hawthorne's writing to "Hawthorne's inclination to those ironic, participational, and self-referring modes of fiction . . . of which Borges is now the undoubted master" (286). According to Wright, Borges sees Hawthorne as a symbolist and a "mimetic artist" (288). A major parallel between Borges and Hawthorne is that Borges' own method of placing problematic texts and dubious explication in already ambiguous situations within the frame of his fictions ... is precisely parallel to Hawthorne's method of allegorizing pseudo-legendary materials. (Wright 291) Symbolism is used by both Borges and Hawthorne. Borges de­ velops "masterpieces of his own in whose light Hawthorne's achievement will at last be visible" (Bennett 307). In Erminio G. Neglia's "Fictional Death in Stephen Crane's 'The Blue Hotel' and Jorge Luis Borges' 'El Sur,'" Neglia says that, although Crane is a social critic and Borges is an abstractionist, both writers have a tendency toward Naturalism (20). In both writers' stories, the pro­ tagonists are imaginative and fall victim to deaths that they themselves create; both characters also die in bars in towns that are strange to them. Neglia states that "the power of imagination and the impact of literature on the human mind underline both tales" (24). Death again is described as a common theme for Borges in "Points South: Ambrose Bierce, Jorge Luis Borges, and the Fantastic" by Howard M. Eraser. Eraser compares Borges' "The Secret Miracle" with Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." He concludes that both authors use similar treatments of time in relation to death. In both stories, the authors use structural devices such as the in medias res narrative, insertion of expository material within the development of the story, and a confrontation between the protagonists and their inevitable des­ tiny: violent death. (Eraser 174) 53 However, an even more striking similarity between the two stories is that "the flow of time apparently ceases" for the victims at the moment of their deaths (Eraser 174). Eraser feels that "fantasy" is a "common thread" in the stories (176). He notes the interesting fact that nothing super­ natural occurs in either story although they are fantastic (177). Borges' contemporaries in the United States, twentieth- century authors, have diverse styles and subject matter. Although a great deal of criticism has been written about Borges and these writers, this section will examine crit­ icism that deals with a representative variety of authors. Since symbolism is such an important element in Borges' writing, it is not surprising that many critics compare his use of symbols to that of other authors. Robert Alter says that Borges is interested not only in symbolism, but also in the Symbolist and post-Symbolist writers. In an arti­ cle about Borges and twentieth-century United States poet Wallace Stevens, Robert Alter labels the two poets as post- Symbolists. He discusses the limitations of symbolism and notes that the writing of both Borges and Stevens "makes us aware simultaneously of the power of the imagination and of its limits" (328). Both writers feel that "the imagination tends to construct its own world arbitrarily" and that "the mind can try to re-invent it" (Alter 329). The two writers think that it is necessary "to falsify" symbols in order to extend beyond the limits of language (Alter 332). An author whom Borges both criticizes and praises is William Faulkner. Douglas Day discusses Borges' interest in Faulkner's works in an essay entitled "Borges, Faulkner, and The Wild Palms." For those readers who know anything about Borges' life, it is well-known that he was "fascinated" by the American South (Day 109). As evidence that Borges is "one of Faulkner's earliest Latin American admirers," Day notes that Borges wrote several essays on Faulkner in the 54 periodical El Hogar as early as 1937 (110). Borges praises Absalom, Absalom! and The Unvanquished, by Faulkner, but he dislikes The Wild Palms (110-111). Borges translated this third novel but obviously had difficulty translating many of the colloquialisms. Although Borges is critical of this "savage, cynical work," Borges says that "Faulkner is the premier novelist of our time" (112, 113). Certainly, the decadence found in Southern Renaissance literature of the United States is present in many of Borges' works. Man's struggle to survive in a cruel, decaying society is a uni­ versal theme in literature, and Borges and Faulkner treat this theme in a very similar manner. In his book The Literature of Exhaustion: Borges, Nabokov, and Barth, John 0. Stark compares the three authors' use of the "hypothesis that literature has used up all its possibilities" (9). Stark's book is based upon John Barth's essay "The Literature of Exhaustion" in which Barth compares Borges, Nabokov, and several other writers. Apparently, Stark believes that Borges, Nabokov, and Barth try to exceed the boundaries of literature. In order to accomplish this technique, Borges and Barth "treat negatively the companion theme of time, memory, because they recognize the relations between the two themes and between memory and past reality" (Stark 9). Stark points out that they "attack the common notions about space" (9). Ray Bradbury, whose forte is the science fiction genre, is another writer often compared with Borges. Noel M. Valis has written an article about Borges and Bradbury in which he says that both write fantasy, "prefer the short-story format to any other genre," and are very "prolific" (50). Valis observes a strong parallel between the two authors in that Borges wrote a prologue for a 1953 Argentine translation of The Martian Chronicles. Borges obviously likes this novel because it deals with themes he uses in his own writing: time and the "kaleidoscopic personality" (Valis 52). 55 Borges, the writer, shares techniques with Ingmar Bergman, the filmmaker. A parallel berween Borges' story "Everything and Nothing" and Bergman's film Persona is the use of "twins, doubles, and second selves" (Bennett 18). According to Maurice J. Bennett, the loss of individual identity and the repetition of images are two techniques employed by both artists. These techniques are illustrated by a scene from Persona in which "the faces of . . . two women are combined into a single visage" (Bennett 18). The image of two human beings' blending into one person is an ideal example of Borges' treatment of North American writers and especially of those in the United States. For Borges, these writers offer a harvest of ideas and techniques that he often borrows, alters, and then incorporates in his own writing. As seen in his writing, Borges clearly is an avid reader of writers from the United States, so it is natural that many critics choose to compare his works with those authors.

European Comparisons Because Borges is such a well-read author and his style reflects a familiarity with numerous European writers, it is impossible to discuss all of the comparisons of his work to that of European writers. However, this section examines some comparative essays by critics in the United States that deal with Borges and authors from Russia, France, England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Perhaps the author to whom Borges is compared most often is the Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov. An important article by John Barth entitled "The Literature of Exhaustion" is the basis for a number of articles and books that compare the "exhaustive" literature of Borges, Nabokov, and other writers. According to Barth, "literature of exhaustion" is that literature which encompasses all elements, including those beyond the normal limitations. Barth notes that nothing is 56 original in literature; literature has been "exhausted." Authors often place boundaries around what they intend to write about, thus excluding extraneous factors that might have had an influence on their subjects. However, both Borges and Nabokov "manage nonetheless to speak eloquently and memorably to our still-human hearts and conditions, as the great artists have always done" (Barth 30). Both writers implement the many elements and techniques of the classical novelistic form in their more modern works. John Stark provides even more details of the literature in his article "Borges' 'Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius' and Nabokov's Pale Fire; Literature of Exhaustion." He comments that "many perceptive contemporary writers believe that the novel is nearly dead" (Stark 139). Nevertheless, Stark indi­ cated that Borges and Nabokov promote the "literature of exhaustion" because their writing "imitates other genres and even nonliterary forms"; Borges, for instance, uses extensive footnoting, and Nabokov's Pale Fire "seems like a poem with critical commentary and an index" (140). The treatment of reality and the imaginary is an important aspect of this type of writing; real elements "are immediately exhausted--cannot be used anymore for literary purposes--because they appear in the real world, which is given and cannot be extended in any significant sense" (Stark 141). Needless to say, the "liter­ ature of exhaustion" is formed by combining exhausted elements with imaginary ones so that the lifespans of the exhausted ones are prolonged. In an extensive study of the "literature of exhaustion," John Stark compares Borges, Nabokov, and Barth. Stark's book The Literature of Exhaustion provides three extensive chapters about these three writers. In his introduction, Stark clarifies Barth's own definition of the "literature of exhaustion," stating that "some writers use as a theme for new works of literature the agonizing hypothesis that litera­ ture is finished" (1). This critic supports Barth's assertion 57 that, according to Borges and Nabokov, writers should invent and exhaust possibilities and thus create for lit­ erature an infinite scope" (Stark 1). In "The Flaunting of Artifice in Vladimir Nabokov and Jorge Luis Borges," Patricia Merivale comments that Borges, like Nabokov, "never lets his readers forget that he is the juror, the illusionist, the stage-manager" (Merivale 209). The labyrinth is a common motif and device for both these writers because "both authors are masters of the short poetic parable with much paradox and riddling in it" (Merivale 210). As noted in preceding chapters of this thesis, the labyrinth represents the universe and reality. However, Borges and Nabokov often use this geometrical figure artificially. Merivale observes that again and again it seems as characteristic for Borges to use the devices of artifice to trap us and himself in infinite regres- sion--in an exitless labyrinth, a hall of mirrors .... (220). For Borges, "'reality' is simply another from of the struc­ ture of artifice" (Merivale 222). In "Creatures and Creators in Lolita and 'Death and the Compass,'" the labyrinth is once again a metaphor for life. Lewis H. Rubman discusses that both Borges and Nabokov use narrators who are not "trustworthy" (450). These narrators guide their readers through labyrinthine stories in which it is difficult to distinguish between reality and unreal­ ity. Rubman summarizes his theory by saying that "the order of the labyrinth is understood only by its creator and those to whom he wishes to reveal it although the creators entrapped in the labyrinth try to reach a revela­ tion by means of their own poor reason" (450-451). Joyce A. E. Loubere compares Borges with the French writer Paul Valery in two essays, "Other Tigers: A Theme in Valery and Borges" and "Borges and the 'Wicked' Thoughts of Paul Valery." She notes that Borges is interested in his 58 work and has written an essay entitled Valery como simbolo (Loubere 309). In Loubere's first essay, the critic compares the authors' treatment of the tiger motif. According to Loubere, a tiger is a "childhood passion" for Borges, and it represents, among other things, strength, beauty, and reality for him (313). Valery sees the tiger in much the same way as Borges does. Both writers view this creature as a combination of opposites; it is beautiful and powerful, yet it is cruel. Although Loubere calls Borges and Valery "very dissimilar writers," she concludes that for both men, the tiger is an embodiment of the human mind, which is a combination of anti­ theses. "The pleasures of lucidity and the search for order are the governing principles in the work of each," so it is understandable that Borges and Valery are interested in the human mind (Loubere 309). In her second essay, Loubere comments that "traces of Valery can be found throughout the work of the Argentinian writer" Borges (419). She implies that Borges' story "Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote" is actually the story of Valery, the writer. "Perverseness" is another common topic for Borges and Valery (Loubere 423). This critic also notes that both authors enjoy examining and often exploiting human virtuosity and namely, the processes of the human mind. Among the techniques employed by Borges and Valery are "using the fantastic as a way of dealing with the ambushes concealed in the burgeoning universe" and being "unwilling to be caught out by the unexpected" (Loubere 428). In her conclusion, Loubere adequately summarizes their similarities by stating that "both writers are driven ... to seek the unexpected, the strange and the illogical on either side of reality" (430-431). In a very enlightening article entitled "Some Notes on 'Pierre Menard,'" Borgesian scholar James E. Irby poses and answers many questions that occur to anyone who reads Borges' "Pierre Menard." Irby calls the story a "paradox" because 59 Borges says that Menard is the author of "some fragments of Don Quixote which are identical in wording to Cervantes' text and yet totally different and much richer in meaning" (156). Irby explains Borges' confusing story by saying that Menard "reads the Quixote so carefully, so resourcefully, that he leaves every word in place" (156). Another question that the critic asks is "why the combination of a French Symbolist and Don Quixote?" (Irby 157). Irby recommends reading Paul Valery's works in order to understand the Symbolist point of view. He also states that Valery feels that although the Quixote is a novel and, therefore, struc­ turally opposes Symbolist thinking. Symbolist writers enjoy "challenges," such as the novel (158). Obviously, Irby also acknowledges the "deep gap or absence in Borges' story (161). However, even this "gap" is an "extension" of the Symbolist style of writing, which involves using obscure, difficult symbolism with multiple implications. While comparing Borges with French authors, critics have not neglected a comparison of Borges and Alain Robbe- Grillet. Robbe-Grillet, who is both a novelist and a film director, shares several techniques with Borges; "laby­ rinthine situations; the manipulation of time; police narratives; internal duplication . . . ; and allusions to or reworkings of myths" as well as the detective story genre (Zlotchew 168). In his comparative essay, Clark M. Zlotchew also says that "the repetition of scenes forms a maze in time rather than in space" in Robbe-Grillet's film Last Year in Marienbad and Borges' story "The Secret Miracle" (169). Zlotchew also comments that Robbe-Grillet intends for his readers or viewers "to take part in the creative process," something which Borges' readers already expect to do (169). According to United States critics, Borges is extremely interested in English authors. A seventeenth-century English writer who also appears in comparisons with Borges is John Milton. In "Borges, Milton, and the Game of the Name," Louis 60 I. Middleman says that Red Scharlach, the criminal in Borges' "Death and the Compass," resembles Milton's Satan in Paradise Lo£t. Middleman asserts that Borges' character's name is symbolic since red is associated with Satan and Scharlach is "scarlet" in German (969). Both Satan and Scharlach are "fallen" men who have failed because of a confrontation with evil. Borges' interest in Neoclassical philosophy is apparent from the many parallels between his and Milton's works. Among the British Romantics whom Borges admires is Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In his article "Tlon, Llhuros, N. Daly, J. L. Borges," Clark M. Zlotchew examines Borges' essay "El sueno de Coleridge." Zlotchew also discusses Borges' essays on similar works by the aforementioned writers, and he concludes that Borges employs the "idea that all poets are but one poet" (459) . Kenneth Fields also examines Borges' interest in "Kubla Khan." In his introduction to an interesting, but rather confusing, article, Fields says, "The universal author of a plurality of texts, breathing through an ingenious Argentine, has recorded his fascination with the famous dream of Coleridge" (175). The critic then discusses the human psyche with regard to Carl Jung, Charles Darwin, Henry James, and a host of other influential people who obviously affect Borges' views of human psychology. One of Coleridge's contemporaries, William Wordsworth, is the subject of another comparison with Borges. Leonard A. Cheever's "Glimpses That Can Make Us Less Forlorn: Wordsworth, Borges, and Neruda," is a detailed comparison of a Wordsworthian sonnet, Borges' poem "Una brujula," and Pablo Neruda's poem "El perezoso." Cheever has identified the common theme of these three works as "spiritual disease." In both Borges' and Wordsworth's poems, "the speaker is pictured as isolated, alienated, and thoroughly miserable because he is acutely aware, intellectually, of the 61 helplessness and hopelessness of his condition" (Cheever 38). There are also a number of stylistic similarities between the two authors. G. K. Chesterton, an early twentieth-century British author, appears frequently in comparative works about Borges. According to Robert Gillespie, Borges "affectionately" refers to Chesterton as being, along with Edgar Allan Poe, one of the major "influences on his own stories of mystery, crime, and detection" (221). Father Brown, a favorite Chestertonian character of Borges, is "always in the right place for the supernatural," a habit which Borges finds appealing (Gillespie 220). This character also is "a perfect Borgesian charac­ ter" because he is fond of "obscure, unique oddities and trinkets" (Gillespie 220). Borges and Chesterton both are partial to detective fiction, and their uses of masks and their treatments of reality reflect this partiality. Critic Gillespie defines reality in Chesterton's works as "the vision induced by the bold distortions of art which apprehend a unity of nature and man" (222). However, this critic goes on to say that Borges' "reality is more disturbing than Chesterton's fantastic world . . . because Borges sees no metaphysical unity between 'good' men and a universe benevo­ lent toward man's moral aspirations" (Gillespie 223). Gillespie concludes his essay by noting that both authors "play with similar notions of contradiction, necessity, circular time, and transcendental reality" (230). Aden W. Hayes and Khackig Toloyan indicate that Borges' fondness for Chesterton and the many parallels between his and the Englishman's works are not merely coincidental. In "The Cross and the Compass: Patterns of Order in Chesterton and Borges," these critics exemplify Borges' "borrowing" elements from Chesterton. The use of false clues, the detec­ tive as "an interpreter of texts," and the interchangeable sjmibols of the cross and compass are among many common characteristics of Borges and Chesterton (Hayes, Toloyan 62 400). However, this article is not negative criticism of Borges; rather, it only reemphasizes that Borges is a master at incorporating elements from many sources into his writing. Another English writer who obviously has influenced Borges is H. G. Wells. This modern author shares Borges' interest in time and space. Borges has written about Wells, and in his commentaries on Wells' works, he concludes that "time alone is the universal substratum of perception" (Philmus 243). However, as Robert Philmus points out in "Wells and Borges and the Labyrinths of Time," Borges believes that "to define time as a variable and space as the constant obviates any philosophical paradox" (242). George Bernard Shaw is the topic of comparison with Borges in an article by Leonard A. Cheever. Cheever says that Borges and Shaw believe in a "continuing dialogue between writer and reader," as is evident from their works (55). This critic notes that Borges, his collaborator Bioy Casares, and Shaw all agree that "excessive romanticism" in writing is ineffective because readers cannot readily identify with it (58-59). Cheever's comparisons are not surprising since Borges names Shaw as "one of his four favorite authors" and alludes to and quotes him extensively (52-53). In another article, Leonard A. Cheever attributes Borges' use of satire to British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Cheever's essay "In Dispraise of Folly" gives insight into Russell's impact on Borges the writer. Cheever notes that in his story "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," Borges has a footnote referring to Russell's 1921 work The Analysis of Mind (50). Parallels between Borges and Russell include their intolerance of "extreme forms of nationalism" (Cheever 51). This critic deduces that both men believe that "all human perceptions . . . are subject to error" (Cheever 52). However, the crux of this essay is that "dangerous forms of irrationality and unreason" are what Borges and Russell fear will end the world (Cheever 51). 63 In his dissertation, "Borges' Frame of Reference; The Strange Case of Robert Louis Stevenson," Daniel Balderston compares Borges with the Scottish writer Stevenson. Balderston says that both writers are erudite and believe that "fiction is artificial and non-mimetic, with plot tak­ ing precedence over character development" (1624-A). This critic feels that Borges "has insisted" on Stevenson's influence on his writing (Balderston 1624-A). Balderston attributes much of the narrative technique in Borges' fan­ tastic works to Stevenson's influence (1624-A). Irish-born writer Samuel Beckett and Jorge Luis Borges are the subject of a 1980 dissertation, by Nancy Jeanne Giguere. In her dissertation, which is entitled "Crisis of Confidence," Giguere acknowledges the late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century influences of positivism and realism upon Borges and Beckett. She says that both writers "came to literary maturity" during this time period, but they feel that the only possibility is a literature based on disbelief, neither imitating nor refusing to imitate" (Giguere 697-A). According to Giguere, Borges thinks that "literature cannot repeat nature" (697-A). Beckett believes that "the world is a mere projection of individual conscious­ ness" and he "illustrates the impossibility of writing about oneself" (Giguere 697-A). Giguere's points are well-taken, and she gives the comparatist some valuable insight into both authors. James Joyce, an Irish author, shares some techniques with Borges. In his dissertation, Robert Morris Oxley notes that both Joyce and Borges use "lists" and "enumerations" in order "to fragment their texts" (795-A). L. A. Murillo has devoted an entire volume comparing the use of irony by both writers. In his introduction to The Cyclical Night, Murillo states that these two writers have similar styles and themes, but their works are very different and must be treated as such (xiii). Murillo feels that Joyce's irony is "verbally 64 obscure" while Borges' irony is very obvious and "radical" (Murillo 18). Although Murillo analyzes both writers separately, he does manage to reconcile his observations about both writers' use of irony. Both Borges and Joyce also share an affinity for dreams and dream-like states in literature. Parallels could be drawn between Borges' characters' confusing time and Joyce's use of stream-of consciousness. It is not surprising that someone should compare Borges and the Spaniard Miguel de Unamuno. Borges admired Unamuno and read his works avidly. According to Anthony Kerrigan in "Borges/Unamuno," both men are "non-Castilian[s] writing in the language of a Castilian world" (238). Kerrigan obser­ vantly points out that "they both also used and abused the generalising language of philosophy to supplement their more real language of fiction" (240). Both men are concerned with what Unamuno terms "intrahistoria," and they try to reverse time so that it "flow[s] from the future toward us" (Kerrigan 247, 242). Unamuno also shares Borges' and James Joyce's interest in dreams, and, for both Borges and Unamuno, "the dream and the fiction served them as well, if not better than, their paraphrases of philosophy" (Kerrigan 240). How­ ever, Kerrigan indicates that the repetition of plots, characters, and themes is the major parallel between Borges and his prophetic precursor (251). In a rather lengthy article, Arthur Efron discusses Borges' and Cervantes' use of perspectivism. He notes that "the kind of novel founded by Cervantes in the Quixote is just another perspective" (Efron 151). Much later in the essay, Efron insists that Borges' "moral rejection of per­ spectivism" is the result of the insensitive perspective found in Nazi philosophy (165). Borges does not believe in "authorial omniscience" because it is a nonexistent per­ spective (Efron 167). Efron ends his article by stressing that there are many perspectives in literature. 65 A forerunner of Cervantes, Don Juan Manuel, is another Spanish writer with whom Borges is compared. In a very detailed analysis of Borges' "El brujo postergado," Thomas Montgomery maintains that Borges wrote most of his work verbatim from Don Juan Manuel's "Tale of Don Ulan." How­ ever, Montgomery attributes the resemblance to the original work to Borges' admiration of this Spanish nobleman (464). According to this critic, Borges edits the original work in his writing only to make "the phrasing more specific" (Montgomery 465). Interestingly enough, Borges himself creates a situation similar to this one in his "Pierre Menard." However, both incidents stand as evidence that Borges is, indeed, a man who loves and respects language. Among the German writers to which Borges is compared, Franz Kafka is the most prominent. Ben Belitt discusses both writers' frequent use of the parable. Belitt mentions "the synoptic multiplication of alternatives, the building of a labyrinth of instances" as one method Borges borrows from Kafka (228). He infers that both Borges and Kafka ulti­ mately derive their parabolic formats from the Bible. In "Durer's Knight, Death, and the Devil," Robert J. Clements includes Borges' interpretations of this sixteenth- century German work. According to Clements, Borges' "Dos versiones de Ritter, Tod, und Teufel" discusses Durer's work. In this work, Borges "sees the Ritter as a model of what is best and worst in the Teutonic character" (Clements 6). Borges also comments on the Ritter's blindness and immortal­ ity, expressing his own envy of the Ritter's attitude toward his affliction (7). The technique of using detective fiction in a search for truth is employed by Borges and the German writer Friedrich Durrenmatt. Critic Tamara Holzapfel's essay "Crime and Detection in a Defective World" is a detailed analysis of the history of detective fiction with an emphasis on Borges' and Durrenmatt's writing. She discusses many detective authors 66 but emphasized that Edgar Allan Poe and G. K. Chesterton are the most influential on Borges and Durrenmatt. Among Borges' and Durrenmatt's shared characteristics are that "reality to them is inscrutable" and "the modern Zeitgeist of human instability and disorientation in a confusing world permeates the work of Borges and Durrenmatt as a whole" (Holzapfel 53, 56). Both writers "use the uncommonly clever detective to meditate on the reaches and limitation of the . . . htiman mind," and both writers "trick" readers by not providing "satisfactory solutions" to their stories (Holzapfel 60, 68). By studying the variety of writers with whom Borges is compared by United States critics, one realizes the broad spectrum of Borges' knowledge of literature. Borges is fa­ miliar with both Latin American authors and with United States writers; but, he most closely resembles European writers, perhaps because of his interest in both classical and modern literature and in languages. Borges never ceases to amaze critics with his erudition and his diverse writing techniques, many of which have been influenced by or are influential on writers on all three continents. Of the articles that compare Borges' writing to that of other Latin American authors, both Howard's "Mind as Reality: Borges' 'The Circular Ruins' and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude" and Benevento's "An Introduction to the Realities of Fiction" draw excellent parallels between Borges and Garcia Marquez. J. M. Alonso's "Cortazar, Borges, and the Loss of Experience" also is a useful reference. Thorpe Running's Borges' Ultraist Movement and Its Poets is a comprehensive text about Borges' influence on other Latin American writers. Alexander Coleman's "Notes on Borges and American Lit­ erature" is an extensive review of parallels between Borges and some authors from the United States, and Bennett's "The Detective Fiction of Poe and Borges" is a good comparison of Borges and a specific author. In addition to these texts, 67 other good comparisons of Borges and authors in the United States are Neglia's "Fictional Death in Stephen Crane's 'The Blue Hotel' and Jorge Luis Borges' 'El Sur'" and "Points South: Ambrose Bierce, Jorge Luis Borges, and the Fantastic" by Howard M. Eraser. Because there are so many good comparisons of Borges' works with those of European writers, it is difficult to determine which comparisons are the best. Stark's The Litera­ ture of Exhaustion is an informative book, and both of Loubere's articles are interesting. "Some Notes on 'Pierre Menard'" by James E. Irby gives a detailed analysis of that Borges story and the European influences that prompted Borges to write it. Hayes' and Tololyan's "The Cross and the Compass" also is useful because it deals with Chesterton's important influence on Borges. CHAPTER VII BORGES: THE WRITER AND THE MAN

Not only is there a great deal of criticism about Borges by critics in the United States, but there also is a large number of works about him as a writer, as well as biogra­ phies about his life. One could safely assume that because he has died recently, some professor at a university in the United States is preparing another full-length biography. Borges was an individual who enjoyed being interviewed, so there are many manuscripts based on interviews with him. Finally, another category of works about Borges is collec­ tions of essays about him. Perhaps the most widely known book about this writer is Carter Wheelock's The Mythmaker, which is referred to in any number of articles about Borges because it provides the most extensive study of Borges' interest in symbolism. In fact. The Mythmaker contains a very useful glossary of some important Borgesian symbols. In his book, Wheelock dis­ cusses aesthetics, symbolism, and motifs, and he explains Borges' prowess at using fantasy. This critic comments that Borges "conceives of fantastic literature as a regres­ sion to something elemental, rather than as a horizontal ranging from reality or an upward flight" (Wheelock 47). Another important book about Borges is Ronald Christ's The Narrow Act: Borges' Art of Allusion. Borges himself wrote the foreword for this book. In this foreword, Borges praises the book as explaining some of his paradoxes: I am often asked what my message is; the obvious answer is that I have no message. I am neither a thinker nor a moralist, but simply a man of let­ ters who turns his own perplexities and . . . philosophy into the forms of literature. (Christ ix)

68 69 Christ's study is very complete because he discusses Borges' esthetics and literary theory and his story development and symbolism as well. George R. McMurray's Jorge Luis Borges is a handbook to Borges' major literary themes and his esthetics. The themes McMurray explores are "the negation of reason," idealism, pantheism, time, doubles and mirror images, and machismo. McMurray carefully divides Borges' short stories into these six categories and explains how each story deals with that particular theme. This critic then explains "Some Aspects of Borges' Esthetics" in a chapter by the same name. This book is useful for its discussions of specific Borgesian stories, as well as its study of the broader significance of Borges' themes and techniques. Another approach to studying Borges' writing is John Dominic Crossan's Raid on the Articulate: Comic Eschatology in Jesus and Borges. Crossan cleverly arranges his study in a work resembling a musical composition. He begins by syn­ thesizing what eight critics define as a literary theme; Crossan then proceeds to compare Borges' works and biblical literary forms. He calls each chapter a "variation" on a theme; the chapters are titled "Comedy and Transcendence," "Form and Parody," "Paradox and Parable," "Time and Fini- tude," and "Person and Persona." Although this book's ar­ rangement is ingenious, the book itself is not very useful because the table of contents and index are evasive. In his "The Four Cardinal Points of Borges," Donald A. Yates analyzes Borges' "artistic orientation" in an organized manner (404). He discusses the "cardinal points of Jorge Luis Borges," which he discerns as "his literary use of Argentine settings and events" (405), language, his "fasci­ nation with philosophical and metaphysical questions" (406) , and the "narrative ingredient of drama" (407). Yates first explains Borges' preoccupation with each of these points, and he then gives examples of how Borges uses these elements 70 in his writing. The article refers to several books about Borges' writing, including Ronald Christ's The Narrow Act, and provides a useful background for Borges' interest in these four "cardinal points." James E. Irby, a scholar who has written numerous works about Borges, gives a succinct, but informative, discussion of Borges' writing in his introduction to Other Inquisitions 1937-1952. Irby comments on Borges' use of paradoxes, his style, his choice of subject matter, and his use of fact vs. fiction. The article briefly mentions religion and phil­ osophy in Borges' work. Although this article serves merely as an introduction to a book, it is a good overview of what a reader can expect from Borges. Another renowned Borges scholar is Carter Wheelock. In his essay "The Subversive Borges," Wheelock explores Borges' philosophies and his treatment of reality, two aspects of his writing that must be understood. In his concluding comment, Wheelock says, "Borges the iconoclast helps all of us to come clean on our convictions, of our lack of them, and to be the architects of our own, honest world-view--to live, that is, in reality" (125). Under the category of works about Borges as a writer are reviews of his works. It is natural to begin a discussion of this criticism with Ronald Christ's "A Modest Proposal for the Criticism of Borges." In this article, Christ makes an excellent observation; when writing about Borges, critics have "imitated him in writing about him" (388). In other words, critics of Borges' writing cannot avoid using many of Borges' techniques in their criticism. However, Christ also correctly reminds his readers that Borges "has restored to us the knowledge that the achievements of literary criticism are subordinate to those of fiction and poetry" (Christ 389). This essay is both interesting and informative. Two more articles about Borges' literary criticism are "The Literary Criticism of Jorge Luis Borges" by Thomas R. 71 Hart, Jr., and "Borges as Concomitant Critic" by Katharine Kaiper Phillips. Hart notes that Borges' critical essays are somewhat controversial. He indicates that Borges' criti­ cism is influenced by Benedetto Croce, another literary scholar, and he proceeds to give examples of how Borges either adheres to or departs from Croce's theory of literary criti­ cism. Hart's article implies that Borges is "less a literary critic than a theorist of literature" (501). On the other hand, Phillips points out similarities between Borges' short stories and his critical essays. In her article, she says that with his criticism, "one should expect to be confounded while amused, stimulated though frus­ trated, provoked but not exasperated" (Phillips 9). Phillips comments that, in the tradition of his fiction, Borges' critical essays are "elusive" (8). She suggests that 'for this reason, very little has been written about his criticism (Phillips 8). Numerous book reviews appear on Borges' works. Rather than assimilating all of these commentaries, it is more effective to examine a few reviews from several different types of periodicals. Reviews from Modern Fiction Studies, the New York Times Book Review, and the New Yorker provide a representative sampling of reviews about Borges' writing. In the Autumn 1973 edition of Modern Fiction Studies, Mary G. Berg compares and contrasts five books about and by Jorge Luis Borges. She discusses Jaime Alazraki's Jorge Luis Borges, Lowell Dunham and Ivar Ivask's The Cardinal Points of Borges, Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares' Extraordinary Tales, Borges' An Introduction to American Literature, and Borges' Doctor Brodie's Report. Berg chose to review these books because they all appeared in 1971 or 1972 and they all either are written in English or have been translated into English. Berg praises Alazraki's work, as well as The Cardinal Points of Borges. She comments that 72 the three works by Borges are all good, and they "represent very different aspects of Borges' life and total published work" (Berg 471). Richard Eder's "To Honor a Prize," which appeared in the New York Times Book Review on August 7, 1977, is a well- written article praising Borges and advocating his receiving the Nobel Prize for literature. Eder briefly discusses both Borges the man and Borges the writer. He notes that the trademark of Borges' writing is a "skeptical attitude to­ ward reality, his reinvention of it with all the portentous apparatus of scholarship and smile concealed like a gaucho's knife" (Eder 3). Another review that praises Borges' work is "Tigers in the Mirror," appearing in the New Yorker on June 20, 1970. George Steiner, book critic, discusses Borges' writing in this article; Steiner labels the writing "universal." This article gives background to Borges' writing and is a review of The Book of Imaginary Beings. He clearly likes the book because he calls Borges an "architect" (Steiner 117). Although it may be impossible to separate works about Borges' writing from those works that deal with him, it is necessary to attempt to do so. Borges was a fascinating person, so many critics discuss him as well as his writing. Because there is some overlapping of criticism and biography, this type of work about Borges is biographical criticism. A large volume that deals with Borges the man and Borges the writer is Emir Rodriguez Monegal's Jorge Luis Borges: A Literary Biography. This book is well-indexed and easy to follow. Rodriguez Monegal outlines concurrently Borges' life and the creation of his works. A fascinating aspect of this book is that the author offers explanations for and gives background to Borges' stories. Another book of biographical criticism about Borges is Gene Bell-Villada's Borges and His Fiction: A Guide to His Mind and Art. The three divisions in the book are "Borges's 73 Worlds," "Borges's Fictions," and "Borges's Place in Literature." This book's arrangement differs from Emir Rodriguez Monegal's book's because Bell-Villada separates Borges' life from his work. Among the articles written about Borges himself is Leonard Michaels' "Borges: An Appreciation." This two-page tribute to Borges is amusing yet insubstantial since the focus of the article is the question, "Does he write to be liked?" (61). It is also difficult to follow Michaels' train of thought, and his writing could be called, at best, avant-garde. Norman Thomas DiGiovanni, who often collaborated with Borges, has written an informative and well-organized arti­ cle entitled "Borges' Infamy: A Chronology and a Guide." DiGiovanni begins with an anecdote about his asking Borges if he would translate Borges' work Historia universal. Borges adamantly refused to translate his work, and DiGiovanni realized that Borges was afraid North Americans would discover that his first fictional work was cribbed from sources which might seem obscure and exotic to Argentines, Frenchmen, Germans, and Italians but with which Americans were on familiar terms. (6) The article continues with a chronology of Borges' writing and a brief guide to his "infamy stories," or stories that contain "false tracks" or "hoaxes" (DiGiovanni 9). Erudition, a trait frequently associated with Borges, is the subject of John Updike's article "The Author as Librarian." Updike writes that "a constant bookishness gives Borges' varied production an unusual consistency" (223). As the article progresses, Updike explains Borges' works, his choice of subjects, and his style. The critic then concludes that Borges' erudition is responsible for his choice of subject matter and style. In an article that tends to be more of a study of Borges' narrative technique than anything else, Thomas E. 74 Lyon implies that Borges often uses his narrators to create distance between himself and his readers (363). The arti­ cle, which is entitled "Borges and the (Somewhat) Personal Narrator," is a study of Borges' narrative devices, but since Borges' narrator is merely a representative of him, the article also is a study of Borges the writer. Lyon indicates that Borges' footnotes contribute to "the confu­ sion of literary distance between author, narrator, characters, and reader" (367). This critic implies that Borges' techniques involve keeping his readers at arm's length. Lyon's theory is similar to Norman Thomas DiGiovanni's theory that Borges is afraid that he might be "discovered" (6). James E. Irby's "Borges and the Idea of Utopia" is a study of Borges' manifestation of philosophies in his writ­ ing. Irby says that, after nearly dying of septicemia, Borges chose to write in "a new genre" (411). The new genre is one that deals with metaphysics. Irby's essay lists themes that reappear in Borges' metaphysical works: to use Berkeleyan idealism to break down substantive reality, . . . the combina­ tional rearrangement ... of these perceptions by means of metaphor to form new poetic realities, and the fervent hope that the future would bring a col­ lective realization of his theories. (414) Irby also gives background to Borges' interest in several literary movements, including Ultraism. Daniel C. Scroggins, in "Borges Defends Europeanism," comments on Borges' relationship with the French. Accord­ ing to this article, the French people greatly admire Borges. In fact, in 1977, the French government offered him "an expense-paid trip to Europe as a birthday gift from the French people" (Scroggins 4). Since many of his works have been translated into French, Borges is widely read by the French, who "regard Borges ... as their own personal discovery in the world of letters" (4). 75 Keith Botsford's "The Writings of Jorge Luis Borges" is a biographical article that explains that Borges' educat::io n and home life were responsible for spawning his interest in literature. After outlining the writer's life, Botsford discusses Borges' work and how his life has influenced it. An observation Botsford makes about Borges' works is that they are "extraordinarily difficult to describe to someone who has not read them" (101). An article that explores Borges' background is Emir Rodriguez Monegal's "Borges; The Intellectual Background." This critic begins his article by commenting on Borges' foot­ notes and references to other works: "they seem to have been written by a man whose only real experience comes from books and who has never set foot outside a library" (Rodriguez Monegal 175). Rodriguez Monegal then explains that Borges does, indeed, have a great deal of firsthand experience with life. He discusses the many philosophical concepts that Borges learned from his father and from his colleagues Macedonio Fernandez and Adolfo Bioy Casares. One large group of works about Borges is manuscripts of interviews. There have been so many interviews with Borges dealing with the same topics that it would be unnecessarily repetitive to examine each work in order to understand them. Although the interviews may be interesting, it is difficult to assimilate the information in them. Nevertheless, two interviews containing valuable information about Borges are Richard Burgin's Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges and Willis Barnstone's Borges at Eighty; Conversations. These interviews are extensive since they deal with everything from Borges' childhood fantasies to his favorite philoso­ phers and writers. Of the many books and articles based on interviews with Borges, Robert G. Collmer's "Books, Bridges and Borges" is one of the most revealing. The article is based on Borges' 1968 visit to Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and on 76 Collmer's conversations with Borges the previous year. Although the article is short, it provides a personal glimpse of Borges. Collmer's work contains charming anecdotes about his encounters with Borges. He concludes his article with a story of how Borges, while speaking at a poetry reading at Harvard after his visit to Texas Tech, referred to his own "'stimulating experience' of discovering works by Argentine authors and hearing about research being under­ taken" at Texas Tech University (Collmer 11). In addition to the numerous critical works about Borges' writing, the volumes of biographical works about him, and the works based on interviews with him are three useful and important collections of articles by United States critics. Simply a Man of Letters; Panel Discussions and Papers from the Proceedings of a Symposium of Jorge Luis Borges Held at the University of Maine at Orono; Prose for Borges, which originally appeared as a special issue of TriQuarterly; and The Cardinal Points of Borges, edited by Lowell Dunham and Ivar Ivask, are all very useful works that contain articles by such renowned Borges scholars as Jaime Alazraki, Emir Rodriguez Monegal, and Carter Wheelock. Because so many United States critics recognize Borges' importance in the literary world, it is impossible to examine each work about Borges in this thesis. However, the aforementioned works in this chapter provide a broad view of Borges, the writer and man, and they are worth examining. CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSION

In any discussion of the criticism about a particular author, there are varied opinions of his work. Sometimes, critics appear to be too unfamiliar with the subject to give a good critique of it, and critics often allow their per­ sonal biases to influence their views of an author's work. However, the majority of the critics that I have discussed in this thesis are objective and fair in their treatment of Jorge Luis Borges' writing. The fact that translations of Borges' works are as wide­ ly read as the original Spanish texts indicates that Borges is indeed a universal author and that his writings have an impact on most readers. Even those critics who do not read Spanish enjoy his works and comprehend them well. Because Borges is so fascinated with symbolism, and especially with the S)mibolism of labyrinths, he refers to labyrinths in his writing and even copies their structures with his writing style. Critics naturally have written many articles and books about this aspect of his works, but the criticism about Borges' symbolism varies in its informative- ness. The general consensus among critics in the United States is that Borges' symbolism is indefinable. Numbers, mirrors, and labyrinths are the most prominent Borgesian symbols, according to criticism in the United States. Most of these critics agree that the author uses these three motifs to symbolize infinity, but some critics observe that he uses them to organize the chaotic indefi- niteness in his works. Criticism in the United States indicates that Borges is extremely knowledgeable about both the Jewish and Christian religions, as well as a number of philosophical concepts.

77 ._ , 78 Although most of the criticism does not name Borges' reli­ gious preference, the critics tell of his reading the Bible and the Kabbalah extensively. His references to elements in both works and his basing themes on them show his knowledge of religious doctrines. According to these critics, Borges' works are often parabolic and modeled from biblical parables. Borges adapts this technique from the Bible, and he also employs Kabbalistic figures of speech such as oxymorons (Alazraki 206). A major theme in Borges' works is man's search for his identity. This theme appears in the Bible, the Kabbalah, and many philosphical and literary works. Among philosophies that critics in the United States feel are important to Borges are pantheism, existentialism, and Berkeleyan idealism. Much like his Romantic precursors, Borges is obsessed with the pantheistic theory that God is present in all beings. Borges' concern with immortality and death explains his preoccupation with existentialism; how­ ever, his admiration for the sixteenth-century philosopher George Berkeley explains Borges' interest in Berkeley's idealistic philosophy. Critics in the United States have regarded metaphysics in Borges' writing as a common topic, and this concept is usually attributed to George Berkeley. Two philosophical concepts, time and reality, are of great interest to Borges and are frequent elements in his writing. Therefore, critics in the United States have been alert to Borges' use of these concepts. Most critics agree that Borges' time is infinite and that it is nontraditional. Borges' obsession with reality vs. unreality is also fre­ quently discussed. The fantastic elements in his works appeal to critics, so many of them attempt to discern Borges' fascination with fantasy. The conclusion reached by most critics regarding Borges' treatment of reality is that he tries to separate reality from unreality. Borges believes that reality is a product of the mind, so to him, anything that can be imagined can exist. 79 All critics in the United States agree that Borges is a master of language. Some critics feel that his language is sterile, but they all acknowledge his creativity. However, many critics are interested in Borges' use of figures of speech. The metaphor is Borges' most prevalent figure of speech, although he does use oxymorons and euphemisms. How­ ever, the most common studies of Borges' language are those that try to explain his interest in creating language. Borges' literary style has been labeled paradoxical by many critics in the United States, but no two critics agree on any one style that always describes his writing. Many critics call his intricate style "labyrinthine," and all critics feel that his style always is difficult to define because it is unusual. Encyclopedism, first person narra­ tion, enumeration, and allusion are characteristics of Borges' style that often are examined by these critics. Just as his encyclopedism implies, Borges is a writer who incorporates many themes in his writing. Major themes appearing in his writings that are discussed by critics in the United States are death and immortality, locale, truth, the search for one's identity, dualities, reality, entrap­ ment, infiniteness, love and sex, religion, and violence. Borges' interest in searching for one's identity, double meanings, and various forms of detection indicates his pre­ occupation with problem-solving. After reading just a few of Borges' stories, one realizes that he is obsessed with discovering the truth and reality. Borges apparently is fascinated with the idea of existing eternally, and critics seem to be aware of this preoccupation. Naturally, Borges sets many stories in his beloved Argentina, and the settings of Buenos Aires and the Argentine countryside often serve as labyrinths through which individuals must search for their identities. Reality, dualities, and truth are intrinsic themes in almost all Borgesian works, as are the themes of entrapment and infiniteness, which often are illustrated by 80 his labyrinths. Although some critics attempt to call love and sex Borgesian themes, they appear so infrequently in his writing that they are not major themes. However, violence, and especially violent death, is a common element in Borges' works, so critics naturally pay attention to this theme. Because Borges is a universal writer, critics compare his works with those of writers from many countries. Inter­ estingly enough, Borges does not have a great deal in common with many Latin American authors; however, in some articles written in the United States, his use of magic realism is compared with that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Carlos Fuentes. One critical article in the United States compares Borges' and Pablo Neruda's use of emotional images in their writing, and another article examines Borges' and Julio Cortazar's graphic realism. It is not surprising that some articles have been written about Borges' collaborations with Adolfo Bioy Casares, nor is it surprising that critics often discuss Borges' ultraismo and his influence on other Latin American authors. Understandably, critics in the United States frequently compare Borges' works with writers from that country. Of the nineteenth-century writers whom Borges admires, Edgar Allen Poe is the writer whose style serves as a model for Borges' works. It is from Poe's detective stories that Borges gleans material and ideas for many of his own detective and mystery tales. Critics also compare the symbolism in Borges' writing to Nathaniel Hawthorne's symbolism. According to these critics, several of Borges' stories about violent death closely resemble stories by Stephen Crane and Ambrose Bierce. Borges' contemporaries, twentieth-century poets, novel­ ists, and filmmakers are compared with him. For instance, Robert Alter calls both Borges and poet Wallace Stevens "post- Symbolists." Another critic examines Borges' interest in William Faulkner's novels and indicates that the works of these two writers deal with decadence. Critics note that 81 John Barth and Ray Bradbury are two novelists who share Borges' interest in the philosophical concepts of space and time. In addition to his being compared with poets and novelists, Borges' techniques are compared with those of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Both artists illustrate the loss of individual identity by incorporating doubles in their works. The largest category of United States criticism about Borges is comparisons of his works with works by European writers. Because both Borges and Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov write "literature of exhaustion," or literature that encompasses both real and imaginary elements, many articles and books have been written that draw parallels between these two authors' works (Barth 30). Another European writer, the French writer Paul Valery, shares Borges' fascination with symbolism and the fantastic, so there also are several com­ parisons of these two writers. According to critics from the United States, Borges is extremely interested in English literature. His interest in English literature possibly is because he first learned to read in English. References to British Romantic writers such as Coleridge and Wordsworth are in Borges' works, so critics naturally compare Borges and these writers. H. G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw, as well as many other English writers also are referred to in articles about Borges, but G. K. Chesterton is the English writer who is most often compared with Borges. G. K. Chesterton's techniques such as extensive use of the fantastic and the symbolism of the cross and the compass resemble some Borgesian techniques. Critics observe similarities between Chesterton's character Father Brown and Borges' detective Lonnrot. Because Borges is such an interesting, personable liter­ ary figure, many people choose to write about his personal life as opposed to his writing. However, it is impossible to separate these two aspects of Borges; Borges' writing and 82 his interest in literature are his life. Although the numer­ ous biographical books and articles, as well as the many interviews with him, discuss everything from Borges' intel­ lectual background and philosophies to his childhood fantasies, almost all of the biographical criticism written about him in the United States is most complimentary. In fact, the overall tone of these works indicates that the critics are somewhat awed by the writer's erudition and stupendous proficiency with language. Critics also note that Borges' works are so complex and so evasive that they really do become labyrinths for his readers. Borges' labyrinths are created by using subtle foreshadowing, false footnotes, and shifting points of view. When a reader encounters these elements, he may become ensnared in a Borgesian literary labyrinth from which he can­ not escape; he falls deeper and deeper into Borges' web of elevated language and complicated plots. Most people first read Borges' works purely for enjo3niient or out of curiosity, never intending to have to search for word meanings or to look up references to obscure literary works. However, if one merely reads Borges' works without attempting to decipher the underlying meaning of his words, the reader is not read­ ing the works as Borges intends for them to be read. Critics, like many of Borges' readers, also may become trapped in a literary labyrinth. However, critics react differently to Borges' traps. Critics explore Borges' tech­ niques, hoping to gain understanding of his writing. Many critics also often compare Borges' works with those of other writers, thinking that by comparing Borges with writers whom they understand, they will understand Borges. Sometimes, these critics become so entranced by Borges' labyrinthine style that they either consciously or unconsciously begin to imitate it, footnoting excessively, referring to complicated or obscure philosophies, or using a writing style that is evasive. 83 Fortunately, there are numerous critics in the United States who have done excellent work in writing criticism of Borges' writings. After examining criticism about Borges' symbolism, philosophies, language, and themes, one realizes that many critics in the United States do comprehend Borges fairly well. After studying United States comparisons of Borges to other Latin American writers. North American writers, and European writers, it is apparent to readers that these critics are aware of the vast scope of Borges' influence on other writers and of their impact on Borges. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

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ii

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In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for a master's degree at Texas Tech University, I agree

that the Library and my major department shall make it freely avail­ able for research purposes. Permission to copy this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Director of the Library or my major professor. It is understood that any copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my further written permission and that any user may be liable for copy­ right infringement.

Disagree (Permission not granted) Agree (Permission granted)

s i 'r ^^i) V-.vl * V ^^ •—: , Student's signature Student s signature

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