Content area
Full Text
Neophilologus (2009) 93:421437
DOI 10.1007/s11061-008-9134-8
Guillermo Lan Corona
Published online: 16 December 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract Jorge Luis Borges relation with Cervantes has not been studied enough. In this article, we will see how Borges knew and admired Cervantes, and how Don Quixote was a powerful inuence in Borges short stories. Borges uses some of Cervantes narrative devices (different narrators, the questioning of the narration, the lack of memory) to undermine the truth of the narration. He does so, like
Cervantes, as part of a literary game, but also because it suits his own notions of realitythe questioning of the narrative truth represents the impossibility of understanding reality as a whole, whereas the emphasis on the story as a ction embodies the idea of reality as a dream.
Keywords Borges Short stories Cervantes Don Quixote Truth
Falsehood
Jorge Luis Borges knew and admired Cervantes. References to him are everywhere in Borges works.1 However, Borges was almost exclusively interested in Don
1 In the List of References I have also included all Borges works found in which he mentions Cervantes or Don Quixote (Borges 1974a, b, d, e, g, hm, 1996a, b, 1997, 1982, 1992, 1998a, b, 1999, 2001b, c, 2002a, 2004a, b). All these items are marked (*).
G. Lan Corona
University of Mlaga, Mlaga, Spain
G. Lan Corona
University College London, London, UK
G. Lan Corona (&)
Flat 1-1A High Road, Willesden Green, London NW10 2TE, UK e-mail: [email protected]
G. Lan Corona
Pso. de Reding 47, 3 -1, 29016 Mlaga, Spain
Borges and Cervantes: Truth and Falsehood in the Narration
123
422 G. Lan Corona
Quixotehis prologue to a 1946 edition of the Novelas ejemplares (Borges 1996a) is one of the rare occasions in which he paid attention to other Cervantes works. Faithful to his belief in a literature of true feelings,2 Borges considers Don Quixote as a true friend that can be loved beyond the words with which we know him. Borges calls him a great person in El idioma de los argentinos: una gran persona, pormenorizada a travs de doscientos trances, para que la conozcamos mejor (Borges 2002a, p. 123). Emphasising the idea of Don Quixote as a person, not as an invention/ction of literature/language, Borges uses the same...