The Blind Creations Of Jorge Luis Borges

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From the broken-down district of Palermo in Buenos Aires 1899, a literary star is born, Jorge Luis Borges. Under the pressure and teachings from his well-educated father, Borges learned English before Spanish and realized his destiny as a shining diamond in the rough within the world of literature. He intertwined reality and imagination, creating unique works of art and granting him the title of “the most foremost contemporary Spanish-American writer”. His influences ranged from people in his life, to his own age and stage in life, to authors he never knew. The themes of his writings touched many people, in the ordinariness and their extravagance, making them classics among other pieces of contemporary literature.

He started his quest for knowledge at the College de Genève, where he earned his B.A and learned to speak French and German. Borges then moved to Spain and became absorbed in the “Ultraist Movement” that supported wild metaphors in the attempt to create true poetry, separated from reality. He loved this movement so fiercely that he brought it back to Argentina. The people there began to sing his praises over the poems he had written including “Fervour of Buenos Aires”. Despite his little mountain of success he, unhappily, had to take a job in the Buenos Aires Library. For the most part, things were going well for Borges in this stage of his life, but, tragedy struck in 1938 when his father died and Borges suffered a blood poisoned head wound. This injury, however, proved to be a blessing in disguise. It allowed him to go into a dream-like state and produce some of the best works of literature the world has ever read such as Fictions” and “The Aleph and Other Stories”. (Rodriguez- Monegal, Britannica Biographies)

In 19...

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... E. P Dutton, a Division of Sequoia-Elsevier, 1977. Print

Borges, Jorge Luis. Collected Fictions. Trans. Andrew Hurley. New York: The Penguin Group, 1998. Print

Ortega, Julio. “Beyond the Labyrinth: The first comprehensive biography of Jorge Luis Borges offers a nuanced view of the elusive man of letters”. Boston. 1 Aug. 2004. Web. March 15, 2011.

Rodriguez-Monegal, Emir. “Borges, Jorge Luis”. Britannica Biographies. 1, Oct. 2010. History Reference Center. Web. 9, March. 2011.

Shenker, Israel. “Borges, a Blind Writer With Insight”. Interview with Jorge Luis Borges. 6, April. 1971. The New York Times. Web. 10, March. 2011.

Dirda, Michael. “Borges: A Life”. Washington Post. 8, Aug. 2004. Page BW15. Web. 10, March. 2011.

*Michael Dirda wrote his article based on a book that Edwin Williamson wrote entitled, “Borges: A Life”, published by Viking.

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