FICCIONES

José Luis Borges(1944)

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sinopsisTHE GARDEN OF DIVERGING PATHS

Ficciones (Fictions) is a book of short stories written by Jorge Luis Bor-ges, published in 1944 and composed of two parts: The garden of diver-ging paths and Artifices; It has two prologues.Criticism has hailed it as one of the books that helped define the cour-se of universal literature of the twentieth century. Also, its publication in 1944 placed Borges in the foreground of universal literature. It was included in the list of the 100 best novels in Spanish of the XX century by the Spanish newspaper “The World”, as well as in the list of the 100 books of the XX century by the French newspaper “Le Monde” and in the 100 best books of all time by the Norwegian Book Club.

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

One evening Borges, together with his friend Adolfo Bioy Casares, discuss executing a novel in the first person when, when looking at a mirror at the bottom of a corridor, Borges recalls that in a volume of The Anglo American Cyclopaedia there is a memorable phrase about the abominable of mirrors and paternity from A heresiarch of Uqbar. When consulting a volume of the encyclopedia, which Borges owns in his house, they discover that there is no mention of Uqbar or heresiarch there, which leaves Bioy Casares perplexed, and the next day he tells Borges that he has the article, in his copy of the encyclopedia. This fact leads them to investigate about Uqbar and to discover a terrible secret.

Pierre Menard, author of Don Quixote

Borges recounts the attempt by Pierre Menard to reproduce the popular work of Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote.

sinopsisTHE GARDEN OF DIVERGING PATHS

The Circular Ruins

Borges recounts the events triggered by the landing, one night, of an old man on an island that has fire damaged circular ruins.

The Lottery in Babylon

In this narrative Borges imagines a lottery that begins by rewarding certain numbers, and then, due to the null moral virtue of these raffles, institutes bad luck to present the buyers of the numbers with double the chance to win a sum or to suffer a punishment in the form of a penalty. As frauds multiply against The Company (the institution responsible for these drawings), it changes fines for days in jail, and thus begins to gain power, eventually, becoming omnipotent and omnipresent.

Examination of the work of Herbert Quain

This essay story begins by mentioning the death of Herbert Quain, the writer, and his warm mention by the press. It continues with the critical analysis of his work, which, in all cases, attempts to distinguish itself through various literary resources; In the case of April March we a symmetric and fractal structure is glimpsed.

The library of Babel

In this piece, Borges analyzes the possibilities, the axioms and the history of this library, generally composed of hexagonal galleries that each has a ventilation shaft in its center, four walls covered with twenty shelves distributed at the rate of five per wall. Each gallery connects to another identical one through a narrow hallway; Each shelf houses thirty-two books composed of four hundred and ten pages which in turn contain forty rows and each line has eighty letters. The books are uniform, and the alphabet consists of twenty-five characters including punctuation.

The Garden of Forking Paths

It is a detective tale that tells of Dr. Yu Tsun’s discovery of an infinite labyrinth while escaping Captain Richard Madden, who is determined to kill him.

Funes the memorable

This short story that takes place in 1887 and is located in Fray Bentos tells the tale of Irenaeus Funes, a boy who, after an accident with a wild horse, is crippled and suffers a modification to his memory that makes it extremely vivid.Borges tells of his last meeting with Irenaeus Funes, who, lying in his room, talks to him about his new ability; At one point he describes his idea of a new numbering system whose numbers are infinite, in another, about the futility of writing his memoirs.

The shape of the sword

This story tells the story of the scar of a man and is contextualized in two historical moments: the almost contemporary or before the publication of the work, and the War of Independence of Ireland in 1922.A man who had to stay in the farm “La Colorada” - because of a storm - near the Caraguatá stream, in Tacuarembó, is greeted by a character known by all as “El Inglés”. After drinking too much, the narrator, when asking “the Englishmen” about the scar, witnesses the unexpected narration of a story of cowardice.

The lesson of the traitor and the hero

The story unfolds, disjointedly, in Ireland and in 1824. Fergus Kilpatrick is the main character and the narrator, Ryan, is his grandson. The murder

ARTIFICIAL

ARTIFICIAL

of his grandfather, betrayal and conspiracy are the motives of the story.narration of a story of cowardice.

Death and the compass

It is a police story in which the protagonist, Detective Erik Lönnrot, supported by Commissar Franz Treviranus, investigates three crimes that seem to be intertwined. It ends with the last crime, whose victim will be the very same detective, Lönnrot.

The Secret Miracle

Jaromir Hladík is the character of this story, and it begins with his dream of an eternal chess set. Then the story describes his arrest and subsequent death sentence at the hands of the Gestapo and because of an exaggerated translation of the Sepher Yezirah, and the secret miracle that occurs moments before his final execution.

Three versions of Judas

The character of this narrative, which takes place in twentieth century Lund, is Nils Runeberg, member of the National Evangelical Union. In his works Kristus och Judas and Den hemlige Frälsaren Nils makes an apology for Judas Iscariot; A vindication of his acts.

The end

In this short story Borges tells of the death of Martin Fierro at the hands of a dark guitarist, seen through the eyes of the character who is also the narrator: Recabarren.

The Phoenix sect

ESSAY QUESTIONS

REFERENCES

1. Explain the reason behind the humour in Borges’ textual analysis of Don Quixote in Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote.

2. What do you think is the significance of Borge´s labrynth theme? Give an example of when he employed this theme

3. How would the ramifications of the actions taken by Emma Zunz against Aaron Loewenthal differ based on whether or not her father was actually framed for embezzlement?

4. Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertus opens with a quotation about the reprehen-sible nature of mirrors for multiplying mankind. Describe an instan-ce in Borges’ literature where the reprehensible nature of mirrors is made apparent.

5. Would you be more inclined to believe Borges is theist or an atheist? Briefly explain why.

6. “Borges created an original literary form in his Fictions.” Give your opinion on this statement, indicating the characteristic elements of Fictions. Justify your answer referring to at least two of the stories.

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Borges narrates the history and secrets of a cult that is ubiquitous and whose mystagogues are unsuspected. It´s only rite consists of the Secret, an action judged as painful, shameful, by its practitioners.

The South

Borges recounts the misfortune of Johannes Dahlmann’s, grandson of Juan Dahlmann, beginning one afternoon in February 1939 when he accidentally strikes his forehead on the edge of the bannister on the stairs of his house and, as a result, he falls ill. His fate is sealed by this accident and by his subsequent trip to the south where he goes to recover during a stay in his property.