Simulacra and Identity Usurpation in Some of Borges’s Stories
Abstract
The artifact, the fetish, the apocrypha and the idea of the imperfect copy as derived from the Gnostic doctrines, which are all mostly attributable to the magical-mythical category of the simulacrum, are just some of the possibilities for investigating the theme in the work of Jorge Luis Borges. In order to further develop our research, it is also interesting to focus on the intricate panoply of inverted, symmetrical, repeated and overwritten destinies that have crammed the Argentine author’s work since its narrative beginnings, and that can be viewed as devices for the creation of the double. The aim of my article is to analyze some of Borges’ stories in which the theme of identity usurpation is linked to that of infamy and to show how, while playing the game of being and appearing, such a paradigm starts as a pure esthetical divertissement in the first narrative experiments (Historia universal de la infamia) and then, in Ficciones and Aleph, acquires an ethical-moral meaning by intertwining with the themes of honor, justice, and revenge.
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References
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