Reading Borges after Benjamin: Allegory, Afterlife, and the Writing of History (SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture) - Hardcover

Jenckes, Kate

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0791469891 ISBN 13: 9780791469897

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2007

Synopsis

Together with original readings of some of Benjamin's finest essays, this book examines a series of Borges's works as allegories of Argentine modernity.

This book explores the relationship between time, life, and history in the work of Jorge Luis Borges and examines his work in relation to his contemporary, Walter Benjamin. By focusing on texts from the margins of the Borges canon-including the early poems on Buenos Aires, his biography of Argentina's minstrel poet Evaristo Carriego, the stories and translations from A Universal History of Infamy, as well as some of his renowned stories and essays-Kate Jenckes argues that Borges's writing performs an allegorical representation of history. Interspersed among the readings of Borges are careful and original readings of some of Benjamin's finest essays on the relationship between life, language, and history. Reading Borges in relationship to Benjamin draws out ethical and political implications from Borges's works that have been largely overlooked by his critics.

About this title

About the Author

Kate Jenckes is Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan and the author of Reading Borges after Benjamin: Allegory, Afterlife, and the Writing of History, also published by SUNY Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791469891
• ISBN 13: 9780791469897
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 186