Jorge Borges Research Paper

consisted of English classics. Being raised with this in mind, and with his prowess of language “the young Borges from his earliest years recognized that he was destined for a literary career” (Monegal, “Jorge Luis Borges”). He was smart enough to realize his place from a young age. Later in his upbringing Borges moved to Geneva Switzerland where he learned to speak French and German, impacting his writing greatly due to the fact he could understand world literature much better. These two languages have some of the most important works of literature and philosophy, and he was now able to understand them in their native tongue. With these languages under his belt he was able to blend genres, “he created a new literary continent between North

His whole upbringing was influential to his writing. From growing up bilingual and reading from his father’s library, to reading books in 4 different languages and translating them himself from a young age. This man, Jorge Luis Borges, was relatively unknown outside of the Buenos Aires literary scene and the French literary scene, due to his work being translated there in the 1950’s (Ciabattari, , “Is Borges the 20th Century’s Most Important Writer?”). It wasn't until 1961 when he won the Prix Formentor prize, or more accurately split it with Samuel Beckett, that he gained popularity. Once he won this award some of his short stories were then published in English under the title Ficciones (Coetzee, Borge’s Dark Mirror). This collection of short stories is some of his most famous work, along with Labyrinths, another collection of short stories. These collections are significant to literature because they blended the lines of philosophy and fiction. He wrote fiction differently than

In some of the short stories in Ficciones he creates his own world/planet, which is completely real in this story, and as you are reading it; “There is no difference between fiction and fact; 'created' reality is as real as observed reality and vice versa; any attempt on our part to describe reality is bound to be a fiction” (Velez?, The Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges: Some Themes). This idea is complex in its own nature. Borges shows that when reality is described with words, it becomes fiction do to humans having created these labels and words to describe something. Therefore knowing this, creating a metaphysical reality in literature is the same as describing our reality in literature. Another theme that Borges tackles in his short stories is the idea of Labyrinths. He shows that it is impossible to see the outside of a maze if you are stuck in it, and uses that fact to describe the idea of free will; by using a labyrinth as a model, he describes how there may be more than one way out, if you find a way out of the maze there is a different way. This describes the idea of free will and fate by showing what our choices may lead to, and if fate has anything to do with these choices; “These notions of