SPAN 378 Borges and his Cultural Worlds
Jorge Luis Borges was a prolific author of poetry, short stories, and essays whose career spanned nearly seventy years. In this course, we will immerse ourselves in Borges’s writing while considering its historical, literary, and cultural contexts. We will trace the aesthetic evolution of his work and examine its social and political aims, with particular attention to the ways in which Borges’s writing moves between the local and the universal. From the landscapes, histories, and cultural traditions of Argentina to questions of time, infinity, identity, language, and the nature of literature, Borges continually brings the particular into conversation with the universal. We will consider both the reach of his work beyond its immediate cultural context and the ways in which that universal ambition remains deeply rooted in local histories and traditions. Prologues, essays, and other writings will also be discussed alongside his poetry and fiction.