Reading Borges after Benjamin : allegory, afterlife, and the writing of history / Kate Jenckes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jenckes, Kate, 1969-

Series:

SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian thought and culture.

SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian thought and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940--Criticism and interpretation.

Benjamin, Walter.

Borges, Jorge Luis, 1899-1986--Criticism and interpretation.

Borges, Jorge Luis.

History in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (187 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Origins and orillas : history, city, and death in the early poems

Bios-graphus : Evaristo Carriego and the limits of the written subject

Allegory, ideology, infamy : allegories of history in Historia universal de la infamia

Reading history's secrets in Benjamin and Borges.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-161) and index.

ISBN:

9780791480564

0791480569

9781429471329

1429471328

OCLC:

137575791