Borges and I

"Borges and I" (originally in Spanish "Borges y Yo") is a short story by the Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. It is one of the stories in the short story collection, The Maker (originally in Spanish El Hacedor), first published in 1960.[1] The story "Borges and I" is about how Borges does not see himself as a writer. It shows the difference between persona and self. Borges persona is that he is the writer of multiple stories, but he hardly sees himself in the story. He is well known for his famous works in literature, but that is not who he is. He claims in the story that Borges wrote those stories, not him. He credits Borges for putting in the work to write the short story. He tries to fight these claims but he always loses to Borges. Everything he tries to do apart from Borges ends up being tied to Borges.

"Borges and I"
AuthorJorge Luis Borges
Original title"Borges y Yo"
CountryArgentina
LanguageSpanish
Genre(s)Fantasy, short story
Media typePrint

Background

Borges was born August 24, 1899 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1914, Borges' family moved to Switzerland, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family traveled widely in Europe, including stays in Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955 he was appointed director of the National Public Library (Biblioteca Nacional) and professor of Literature at the University of Buenos Aires.

Philosophical implications

Borges' story raises many philosophical questions of Self and epistemology. Viewed through the analytic lens of Russell's knowledge by description, the story explores the interesting concept of knowledge of Self by description (as opposed to the more expected knowledge by acquaintance). This is emphasized by the mention of receiving Borges' mail and reading about Borges in a book.

Also, the distinction between persona and Self can be interpreted as a distinction between author and writer. The author would be analogous to the persona and Borges. The writer would be the Self and "I". Theoretically, the writer could be anyone, it just happens to be Borges. With this interpretation Borges is seen to be commenting on the cognitive differences between processing third person information and first person information.[2]

References
  1. , publication information and text in English at Northwestern University.
  2. , Amherst philosophy lecturer John Perry discusses the differences between the two possible interpretations in depth. Perry, John. “ ‘Borges and I’ and ‘I’.” The Amherst Lecture in Philosophy 2 (2007): 1–16. <http://www.amherstlecture.org/perry2007/>.

See also
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