Borges and Political Philosophy

In this year's Winter Session, we will engage in
an in -depth reading of Argentine fiction writer
and essayist Jorge Luis Borges, an author widely
but wrongly regarded as "a-political." In the
course, we will reveal the way in which his
"fictions" were in fact 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 have experienced 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. In this
seminar, we will offer a multilayered political
reading of Borges' fiction and non-fiction
writings. Our first approach to his texts will be
concerned with his non-fiction critique of Nazism
and Fascism in Europe and Latin America. During
the following sessions, 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 three modern and
contemporary thinkers and contemporary
philosophers: political and social theorist Claude
Lefort, Jewish German American political thinker
Hannah Arendt, and American philosopher Judith
Butler.