Borges Criticism – Religious & Esoteric
- At August 29, 2019
- By Great Quail
- In Borges
- 0
Do you want to see what human eyes have never seen? Look at the moon. Do you want to hear what ears have never heard? Listen to the bird’s cry. Do you want to touch what hands have never touched? Touch the earth. Verily I say that God is about to create the world.
—Jorge Luis Borges, “The Theologians”
Borges Criticism: Religious & Esoteric Criticism
This page collects English-language Borges criticism written from a religious, metaphysical, or philosophical perspective, including the Kabbalah, mysticism, gnosticism, eschatology, etc. Works of general criticism such as surveys, conference notes, and indexes may be found under General Criticism. The Borges Criticism main page features a “Quick Reference Card” with more details.
Most of the books profiled in this section are accompanied by a brief description, a summary of contents, and the official publisher’s blurb. Original commentary is included only for those books I’ve read, although I’ve included a few reviews excerpted from other sources. If any visitor would like to contribute informed commentary for any of these works, please contact the Garden! The books are listed in chronological order of publication. Clicking the image of a book takes you directly to Amazon.com.
Raid on the Articulate: Comic Eschatology in Jesus and Borges
Raid on the Articulate: Comic Eschatology in Jesus and Borges
By John Dominic Crossan.
Harper & Row, 1976.
An Irish religious scholar with numerous books about the “historical Jesus,” one of Crossan’s earliest works was this Christian account of apocalyptic themes in Borges. According to the publisher, Crossan “juxtaposes the sayings and parables of Jesus to reveal fresh interpretations.”
Jorge Luis Borges: Sources and Illuminations
Jorge Luis Borges: Sources and Illuminations
By Giovanna de Garayalde.
Octagon Press, 1978.
Often cited in Borges scholarship, this early work of criticism examines Borges from the perspective of Islamic mysticism. The book’s author is somewhat mysterious, and often has the word “Professor” prefixed to her name. Sources and Illuminations was published by the now-defunct Octagon Press, a London publishing house founded in 1960 by Sufi teacher Idries Shah.
From Octagon Press:
A must for anyone interested in the work of the great Argentinian writer, Jorge Luis Borges. Professor Garayalde settles many of the puzzles and misinterpretations of his works in a very concise and convincing account both of the Sufis and their work—with which she became familiar long before she approached Borges’ own—and of the many parallels in ideas and in actual tales that are included in his work. This is an ideal introduction to Sufi thought for anyone who is searching for a greater understanding of life and him/herself through literature.
The Aleph Weaver
The Aleph Weaver: Biblical, Kabbalistic, and Judaic Elements in Borges
By Edna Aizenberg.
Scripta Humanísta, 1984.
An emeritus professor at Marymount Manhattan College for over fifty years, Edna Aizenberg (1945-2018) was widely recognized a pioneer of Jewish studies in Latin American literature. The Aleph Weaver is the first of Aizenberg’s three books which focus on Borges.
Solomon Lipp reviewed The Aleph Weaver in 1988 for Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos. It is a long review, but these excerpts offer a good summary:
Professor Edna Aizenberg’s volume on Jorge Luis Borges is a stimulating addition to the field of Borges studies. It is bound to provoke controversy because of the basic thesis proposed, namely, that Borges’ fascination with lo hebreo, his interest in Jewish culture, is intimately connected with his Latin American identity. Aizenberg maintains that the Hebraic element is a fundamental ingredient in Borges’ conception of his literary production. The Jew as intellect is an important metaphor in Borges; in fact, this primary con figuration of the Jew, reinforced in his mind by Jewish contributions to European civilization, has nurtured his attraction to Judaism: Hebrew Scriptures, Spinoza’s speculations, Heine’s writings, German Expressionist poetry—all belong to the orbit of Judaism and contribute to Borges’ fondness for lo hebreo—not a very common manifestation in Spanish American literature. For Borges the quality of innovativeness is an intellectual posture considered to be Judaic.
Given this basic premise, Professor Aizenberg has undertaken to ex amine personal, historical and cultural circumstances which have contributed to Borges’ approach to lo hebreo. To this end she examines some of his less-known texts and discusses his myths and techniques related to the subject. She also enriches her study with continual references to the works of other Borges scholars, as well as authorities on Jewish mysticism to whom Borges feels particularly attracted. Finally, Aizenberg’s work is dotted with periodic quotations, extracted from her recorded interviews with Borges.
[…]
Borges is cast in the role of the “Aleph Weaver” as the title of the book indicates. Professor Aizenberg, herself, is no mean weaver as she brings together in skilful fashion the various Judaic strands of Borges’ inspired creativity which produce a rich and colorful tapestry—one which the reader is certain to enjoy.
Solomon Lipp, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Primavera 1988), pp. 490- 493
Borges and the Kabbalah: And Other Essays on His Fiction and Poetry
Borges and the Kabbalah: And Other Essays on His Fiction and Poetry
By Jaime Alazraki
Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Born in Argentina, Jaime Alazraki (1934-2014) was a literary critic who received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University, where he later served as the chair the department of Spanish and Portuguese. A celebrated Borges scholar, Alazraki was fascinated by Jewish mysticism, and many of his early papers examined Borges’ use of the Kabbalah.
From Cambridge University Press:
The Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges was one of the most influential figures to emerge from the great blossoming of South American literature in the twentieth century. As a scholar, poet, critic and writer of fiction he was widely read in English translation. This volume brings together a collection of essays on Borges by leading scholar Jaime Alazraki. Together the essays constitute an introduction to important aspects of Borges’ oeuvre, including the influence of the Kabbalah, structure and style in the fiction, Borges’ poetry, and Borges’ impact on Latin American literature. Students and scholars of contemporary literature will find here in one volume the best of Professor Alazraki’s short pieces on this great writer.
Borges’ Esoteric Library
Borges’ Esoteric Library
By Didier T. Jaén.
University Press of America, 1992.
Born in Panama, Didier Jaén (1930-2011) was a professor emeritus of Spanish and Classics at the University of California. According to the publisher, Jaén’s book is an examination of “Borges’ use of allusion to esoteric and metaphysical doctrines,” which is presented as foundational to his “renovation of fiction toward metafiction.”
Contents:
- Borges and the Esoteric Tradition
- The Esoteric
- The Fantastic, and Borges’ Metafiction
- Borges’ Art: Metaphysics as Metafiction
- The Loss of the Self
- The Loss of Reality
- The Loss of Time
- The Loss of Words
- The Loss of Salvation
- “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” and The Esoteric Tradition
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Borges and the Esoteric
Borges and the Esoteric
Edited by Robert Lima.
Pittsburgh: Duquesne University, 1993.
Robert Lima is a Cuban-American playwright, literary critic, and translator, professor emeritus of Spanish and Comparative Literatures at Pennsylvania State University. (He also holds a Spanish knighthood!) Borges and the Esoteric is a special issue of Crítica Hispánica—Vol. XV, No. 2, Fall 1993. The book is 128 pages long and contains the following academic papers and essays:
- Introduction by Robert Lima: “Borges and the Esoteric”
- Edna Aizenberg, “Feminism and Kabbalism: Borges’s ‘Emma Zunz”
- Jaime Alazraki, “El componente sufí de ‘El acercamiento a Almotásim’”
- Timothy Ambrose, “Borges and the Vedic Tradition: Consciousness as the Source of the World”
- Willis Barnstone, “Memoir about a Metaphysical and Mystical Poet”
- Carlos Cortínez, “About Face in Borges”
- Julia Cuervo Hewitt, “El círculo del cuadrado en el cuadrado del círculo: ‘La muerte y la brújula’ de Borges”
- John T. Irwin, “Double You, Double V: Borges and Poe in the Labyrinth”
- Robert Lima, “Borges, The Man with the Occult Eye”
- Naomi Lindstrom, “Borges and Jewish Mysticism: Paradoxical Interrelations”
- Paul West, “A Borgesian Beast”
Shortly after publication, Nancy Brown interviewed Robert Lima at Penn State for a profile on Borges. She remarks about the book:
It is these shunting devices that Lima focuses on in the Crítica Hispánica volume, titled Borges and the Esoteric. Lima’s own contribution takes on numerology, another brings together feminism and ancient Jewish Kabbalism, a third Sufism.
Contributor Timothy Ambrose, of Maharishi International University, finds parallels between the Vedic tradition of ancient India and Borges’ “Las escritura de Dios.” In the story, a pre-Columbian magician, imprisoned by the Spaniards, learns to read the markings on a tiger. “The deciphering of that magic writing,” writes Ambrose, “bestows upon him a knowledge of infinity, a knowledge which allows him to accomplish anything. Nonetheless, he chooses to remain imprisoned lying in the darkness.” Like the Vedic seers, he has “taken his individual mind to the level of cosmic mind . . . and has seen for himself that absolute silence is the creative energy and intelligence of eternal Being.” At the end, the reader is left to wonder if the events of the story happened only in the narrator’s mind, “a mind ultimately uninvolved with the play and display of its own creation.”
Penn State professor Julia Cuervo Hewitt, whose contribution is in Spanish, discusses the intertwining of alchemy and Kabbalism in another story, “La muerte y la brujula.” “The main character and the reader,” she writes in an English abstract, “are led to believe that the solution to the riddles of the text, as well as to the murder with which the story begins, can be found in the Kabbalah. The structure of the text, however, follows a different tradition. . . . In typical Borgesian style, the search for truth in this short story is always a futile effort. At the end, man always finds himself lost and trapped in the labyrinths created by his own imagination.”
Borges and Philosophy: Self, Time, and Metaphysics
Borges and Philosophy: Self, Time, and Metaphysics
By William H. Bossart
Peter Lang, 2003.
This is “Book 16” in Peter Lang’s “Studies in Literary Criticism and Theory” series. A philosopher deeply interested in metaphysics, W.H. Bossart has written extensively on subjects such as Kant, postmodernism, and Buddhism.
From Peter Lang:
Jorge Luis Borges is acknowledged as one of the great Spanish writers of the twentieth century. On the broader literary scene, he is recognized as a modern master. His fascination with philosophy—especially metaphysics—sets him apart from his contemporaries. Borges appreciated and formulated rigorous philosophical arguments, but also possessed the unique ability to present the most abstract ideas imaginatively in metaphors and symbols. Borges wandered among the great masters seeking a firm purchase that he could not find, and therefore expressed a nostalgia for metaphysics as he lost himself in his labyrinths. Borges and Philosophy traces Borges’ philosophical concerns in his tales, essays, and poems and argues that despite his apparent skepticism in philosophical matters, a careful reading of Borges’ texts reveals a coherent philosophical path that underlies his work.
Borges Criticism
Main Page — Return to the Borges Criticism main page and index.
Biography — Borges biography and memoir.
General Criticism 1 — General literary criticism and commentary written during Borges’ life, 1965–1986.
General Criticism 2 — General literary criticism and commentary written from 1987 to the present.
Comparative Criticism — Borges criticism with a strong political, cultural, or linguistic component, including postcolonial criticism, genre studies, and author comparisons.
Scientific Criticism — Borges criticism within the disciplines of science, mathematics, and technology.
Author: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 2 November 2019
Main Borges Page: The Garden of Forking Paths
Contact: quail(at)shipwrecklibrary(dot)com