Borges and the Political
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General
Course Long Title
Borges and the Political
Subject Code
CHMN
Course Number
294
School(s)
Academic Level
UG - Undergraduate
Description
Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges was an author
widely but wrongly regarded as a-political.
Although he was not a political writer in the
conventional sense of the word, his texts
nevertheless constantly engaged in the indirect
interrogation of our shared, political world. In
this course, we will reveal the way in which most
of his famous "fictions" were a massive attempt to
respond to the politics of his time-the advent of
fascism and totalitarianism-and thus will help us
interrogate "the political" in its most complex
manifestations: the question of political forms,
the question of the institution of the new in
historical time, and the question of alterity. As
we are witnessing during these turbulent times,
anti-Fascists come in different forms and shapes.
Small "d" democrats, anarchists, Marxists, and
libertarians from all parts of the world
experience their confrontation with fascism as the
defining moment of their lives. Not everyone,
however, managed to become one of the most
original and influential twentieth century authors
because of such confrontation. This seminar will
thus offer a multilayered political reading of
Borges' fiction and non-fiction writings. Our
first approach to his writings will be concerned
with his non-fiction critique of Nazism in Europe
and Latin America. During the rest of the
semester, we will structure the course as an
exploration of the theoretical implications of
Borges' "detour of fiction," and we will do so by
diving into three conceptual aesthetico-political
dichotomies that his writings will help us
interrogate: that of chaos and cosmos, the
imaginary and the real, and the same and the
Other. While doing this, the course will also
engage his different stories and essays from the
perspective of a few modern and contemporary
thinkers and critics. We will analyze, with the
help of Argentine cultural critique Beatriz Sarlo
and French political and social theorist Claude
Lefort, Borges's unique way of intertwining his
fiction writing with his investigation of
political forms.
widely but wrongly regarded as a-political.
Although he was not a political writer in the
conventional sense of the word, his texts
nevertheless constantly engaged in the indirect
interrogation of our shared, political world. In
this course, we will reveal the way in which most
of his famous "fictions" were a massive attempt to
respond to the politics of his time-the advent of
fascism and totalitarianism-and thus will help us
interrogate "the political" in its most complex
manifestations: the question of political forms,
the question of the institution of the new in
historical time, and the question of alterity. As
we are witnessing during these turbulent times,
anti-Fascists come in different forms and shapes.
Small "d" democrats, anarchists, Marxists, and
libertarians from all parts of the world
experience their confrontation with fascism as the
defining moment of their lives. Not everyone,
however, managed to become one of the most
original and influential twentieth century authors
because of such confrontation. This seminar will
thus offer a multilayered political reading of
Borges' fiction and non-fiction writings. Our
first approach to his writings will be concerned
with his non-fiction critique of Nazism in Europe
and Latin America. During the rest of the
semester, we will structure the course as an
exploration of the theoretical implications of
Borges' "detour of fiction," and we will do so by
diving into three conceptual aesthetico-political
dichotomies that his writings will help us
interrogate: that of chaos and cosmos, the
imaginary and the real, and the same and the
Other. While doing this, the course will also
engage his different stories and essays from the
perspective of a few modern and contemporary
thinkers and critics. We will analyze, with the
help of Argentine cultural critique Beatriz Sarlo
and French political and social theorist Claude
Lefort, Borges's unique way of intertwining his
fiction writing with his investigation of
political forms.