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::ion
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.
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