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.
Downloads
References
AA.VV., Jorge Luis Borges, ed. Harold Bloom, Philadelphia, Chelsea House Publishers, 2004.
Barrenechea, Ana María, La expresión de la irrealidad en la obra de Borges, Buenos Aires, Centro Editor de América Latina, 1984.
Borges, Jorge Luis, Historia universal de la infamia (1935), trad. it. Storia uni-versale dell’infamia, Ed. Vittoria Martinetto-Angelo Morino, Milano, Adelphi, 1997.
Id., Ficciones (1944), trad. it. Finzioni, Ed. Antonio Melis, Milano, Adelphi, 2003.
Id., El Aleph (1949), trad. it. L’Aleph, Ed. Tommaso Scarano, Milano, Adelphi, 1998.
Id., El Hacedor (1960), trad. it. L’Artefice, Ed. Tommaso Scarano, Milano, Adelphi, 2011.
Id., El otro, el mismo (1964), trad. it. L’altro, lo stesso, Ed. Tommaso Scarano, Milano, Adelphi, 2011.
Id., El libro de arena (1975), trad. it. Il libro di sabbia, Ed. Tommaso Scarano, Milano, Adelphi, 2004.
Borges, Jorge Luis - Guerrero Margarita, El libro de los seres imaginarios (1957), trad. it. Il libro degli esseri immaginari, Ed. Tommaso Scarano, Mi-lano, Adelphi, 2006.
Fusillo, Massimo, L’Altro, lo stesso. Teoria e storia del doppio, Firenze, La nuova Italia, 1998.
Molloy, Sylvia, Las letras de Borges y otros ensayos, Rosario, Viterbo, 1999.
Ogden, Thomas, “Borges y el arte del duelo”, Revista de la sociedad argentina de psicoanálisis, 21.22, (2017/2018): 83-106.
Guzzi, Anna, La teoria nella letteratura: Jorge Luis Borges, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2008.
Paoli, Roberto, Borges. Percorsi di significato, Messina-Firenze, Editrice D’Anna, 1977.
Poe, Edgar Allan, Racconti fantastici e del terrore, trad. it. Sergio Regazzi, Mi-lano, Mursia, 1989.
Rodríguez, Fermín, “Saber dar muerte. El arte del duelo en Jorges Luis Bor-ges”, Latin American Literary Review, 36.71 (2008): 99-131.
Waisman, Sergio, Borges e la traduzione. L’irriverenza della periferia, trad. it. Alessio Mirarchi, Salerno, Arcoiris, 2005.
Copyright Notice
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and to adapt the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
