The Philosophy of Borges

Jorge Luis Borges devoted several essays during his youth to developing his philosophical understanding of concepts like "personality," "memory," "reality," "narrative" and "style." At some point later in his literary career, he attempted to erase the memory of those years from his public existence, to the extent that most of the books published during the 1920s were never reprinted during Borges' lifetime. Nevertheless, it was in those years that he developed the entire philosophical grounding of his future literary work. We will work to decipher Borges' philosophy through the reading and interpretation of his essays, narratives and poems, including several key texts from his first three suppressed prose volumes (Inquisiciones, El tamaño de mi esperanza, and El idioma de los argentinos). In English, with some Spanish readings. Prerequisite: HISP 0730 or 0740 .