Signs of Borges (Latin America in Translation/en Traducción/em Tradução)

Available for the first time in English, __Signs of Borges__ is widely regarded as the best single book on the work of Jorge Luis Borges. With a critical sensibility informed by Barthes, Lacan, Foucault, Blanchot, and the entire body of Borges scholarship, Sylvia Molloy explores the problem of meaning in Borges's work by remaining true to the uncanniness that is its foundation. Borges's sustained practice of the uncanny gives rise in his texts to endless tensions between illusion and meaning, and to the competing desires for fragmentation, dispersal, and stability. Molloy traces the movement of Borges's own writing by repeatedly spanning the boundaries of genre and cutting across the conventional separations of narrative, lyric and essay, fact and fiction. Rather than seeking to resolve the tensions and conflicts, she preserves and develops them, thereby maintaining the potential of these texts to disturb. At the site of these tensions, Molloy locates the play between meaning and meaninglessness that occurs in Borges's texts. From this vantage point his strategies of deception, recourse to simulacra, inquisitorial urge to unsettle binarism, and distrust of the permanent--all that makes Borges Borges--are examined with unmatched skill and acuity. Elegantly written and translated, __Signs of Borges__ presents a remarkable and dynamic view of one of the most international and compelling writers of this century. It will be of great interest to all students of twentieth-century literature, particularly to students of Latin American literature. Publisher description -- Borges's sustained practice of the uncanny gives rise in his texts to endless tensions between illusion and meaning, and to the competing desires for fragmentation, dispersal, and stability. Molloy traces the movement of Borges's own writing by repeatedly spanning the boundaries of genre and cutting across the conventional separations of narrative, lyric and essay, fact and fiction. Rather than seeking to resolve the tensions and conflicts, she preserves and develops them, thereby maintaining the potential of these texts to disturb. At the site of these tensions, Molloy locates the play between meaning and meaningless that occurs in Borges's texts. From this vantage point his strategies of deception, recourse to simulacra, inquisitorial urge to unsettle binarism, and distrust of the permanent--all that makes Borges Borges--are examined with unmatched skill and acuity 1. Shadow Plays. Double Mistrust. Detailed Web Of Theories To Validate The Task Coveter Of Souls: A First Step Toward Fiction. Greedy Sequels: Evaristo Carriego And The Infamous Biographies Surface Of Images Games With Masks. Mask And Displacement. Mask Revealed -- 2. Textual Rubrications. Signs In A Book. Deflected Signs. Deflected Deaths -- 3. Fragments And Greeds. Dissolving Of Character: Doubles. Beyond The Double. Lack Of Symmetry: Contamination And The Illusion Of Desire. Disequilibrium: The Ineffective Character. Fragments And Shadows. Sylvia Molloy ; Translated And Adapted By Oscar Montero In Collaboration With The Author. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [133]-137) And Index.