Borges Jorge Luis - Liberty, Individuality, and Democracy in Jorge Luis Borges

Advisory Board

Richard Avaramenko, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Timothy Burns, Baylor University

Paul A. Cantor, University of Virginia

Joshua Foa Dienstag, University of California at Los Angeles

Lilly Goren, Carroll University

Catherine Heldt Zuckert, University of Notre Dame

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ISBN 978-1-4985-1456-9 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4985-1457-6 (electronic)

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With the exception of the last chapter, this book is a compilation of several papers delivered at the American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meetings, in panels organized by the Politics, Literature, and Film Division. Culture, politics and literature in Jorge Luis Borges was presented in 2008; Inequalities in Fiction: Encounters and Transformations in Jorge Luis Borges in 2004; Philosophy and Art in Jorge Luis Borges in 2003; and Political Liberty and Individuality in Borgess Fictions in 2002. I am grateful to the Chairs, panelists and participants for their comments, and to APSA for the travel grant awarded in 2008. In this book I have revised and expanded the original versions of all papers, which are reproduced here with permission. The book also includes a slightly revised version of the article Political Philosophy in Borges: Fallibility, Liberal Anarchism, and Civic Ethics, published originally in The Review of Politics, 72 (2), 2010, 299324, copyright by Cambridge University Press, reprinted here with permission.

Over the years my work on Borges has been improved by the contribution of several people. To a large extent, I am indebted to Catherine Zuckert and Douglas Den Uyl for their valuable help. Catherine showed great diligence and patience in assisting me with the publishing of my article. Since the start, Doug has helped me shape the arguments and improve my use of English language and style. In addition, we both share an interest in Borges, philosophy and liberty, which has made of our conversations something to always look forward to. I have also benefited from the thoughtful comments by Eduardo Velasquez, Steven Ealy and Pamela Jensen, and from the discussion at the colloquium Liberty, Responsibility and Individuality in Jorge Luis Borges, directed by Loren Lomasky. I would like to extend my thanks to everyone, and especially to Eduardo Velasquez and Sybil Rhodes who invited me to lecture on the material of chapter 1 at Washington and Lee University and Universidad del Cema, respectively.

Naturally, I am very grateful to Lee Trepanier and Lexington Books for having believed that my work on Borges was worth publishing, and to Instituto Universitario Eseade, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero and Universidad Catlica Argentina for their continuing financial support. My gratitude also goes to Liberty Fund, for without the opportunity to participate in their programs, probably none of the book-related activities would have taken place. Last, but not least, Celia Perkins and Marcelo Podest have been noble friends in and beyond Borges, and Dolores Cullen, Nicols Maloberti and Nicols Cachanosky graciously helped me with the logistics of my work.

I dedicate this book to my parents Juan Jos and Nora, for their extraordinary love and generosity; to my son Joaqun, who is increasingly knowledgeable about all things political; and to my dear siblings Malena and Juan Jos (h). Perhaps these pages justify so many hours spent among books; paraphrasing Borges, I find that reading is indeed one of the forms of paradise.

According to Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, Jorge Luis Borges is the most important thing that happened to Spanish literature in modern times, and one of the most memorable artists of our time. I had not fully realized the unique stature that Borges reached abroad until fifteen years ago, when as an Argentine often traveling in the United States many interlocutors asked me about the authors work and life. Although I had read Borges sometime before, I regretted that I could not offer a more enlightened answer to their inquiries. I thus began a research journey during which I discovered a strong presence of the political in Borgess texts, and I started working on an interpretation of his writings from a political angle. This book is the result of that research.

In the following pages, the political is broadly understood as the field of ideas, motivations, actions, discourses, decisions and events dealing with the organization and governing of a society. My main objective in this work is to analyze in which aspects and around which topics Borges found inspiration and gave literary form to the political. I am aware that he repeatedly claimed that his literature did not intend to design political institutions and programs or to persuade about specific policies; that he had no message at all since he only wrote to ease the passing of time, and that he was uninformed about political affairs: I know little about contemporary life. I dont read a newspaper. I dislike politics and politicians. What I intend to show in these pages is how the political inspired him to write fictions, short articles and essays (many of his poems also address the subject, but I do not focus on the analysis of his poetry). My objective is not to evaluate if the plots and contents of his work are truthful or not to historical facts or to political theories, nor do I assess the literary style of his writings.