Whoever reads my words is inventing them
The tenets and opinions [an author] holds are wrought by the superficial accidents of circumstance; what really matters is the driving trend behind the symbols. The author may not wholly understand them; this is the critic’s task.
—Jorge Luis Borges, 1965
Jorge Luis Borges: Criticism
The following section collects Borges-related literary criticism and biography that has been written or translated into English. The Borges Criticism section is divided into eight parts, as described below. If you have any question about where a particular volume has been located, check the “Quick Reference Card” after the following links.
Borges Criticism
General Criticism 1 — General literary criticism and commentary written during Borges’ life, 1957–1986.
General Criticism 2 — General literary criticism and commentary written from 1987 to 1999.
General Criticism 3 — General literary criticism and commentary written from 2000 to the present.
Poetics — Criticism written about Borges’ poetry and poetics.
Comparative Criticism — Borges criticism that compares Borges with other writers or locates Borges’ work within a broader literary context such as genre fiction or Latin American Literature.
Political & Theoretical Criticism — Borges criticism with a strong political, theoretical, or philosophical component: Marxist critique, postmodernism, postcolonial studies, gender studies, queer theory, disability studies, etc.
Religious & Esoteric Criticism — Borges criticism from a religious, metaphysical, or esoteric perspective.
Scientific Criticism — Borges criticism within the disciplines of science, mathematics, and technology.
Quick Reference Card
General Criticism 1: 1957-1986
Agheana, Ion T. The Prose of Jorge Luis Borges: Existentialism and the Dynamics of Surprise
Alazraki, Jaime. Jorge Luis Borges
Balderston, Daniel. The Literary Universe of Jorge Luis Borges: An Index to References and Allusions to Persons, Titles, and Places in his Writings
Barrenechea, Ana María. La expresión de la irrealidad en la obra de Jorge Luis Borges / Borges the Labyrinth Maker
Bell-Villada, Gene H. Borges and His Fiction: A Guide to His Mind and Art
Bloom, Harold, ed. Modern Critical Views: Jorge Luis Borges
Christ, Ronald. The Narrow Act: Borges’ Art of Allusion
Cortínez, Carlos, ed. Simply a Man of Letters
Dunham, Lowell, and Ivar Ivask. The Cardinal Points of Borges
Kinzie, Mary and Charles Newman. Prose for Borges
McMurray, George R. Jorge Luis Borges
Molloy, Sylvia. Las letras de Borges / Signs of Borges
Shaw, Donald. Critical Guides to Spanish & Latin American Texts: Borges: Ficciones
Stabb, Martin S. Jorges Luis Borges
Sturrock, John. Paper Tigers: The Ideal Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges
Wheelock, Carter. The Mythmaker: A Study of Motif and Symbol in the Short Stories of Jorge Luis Borges
Yates, Donald A. Jorge Luis Borges: Life, Work, and Criticism
General Criticism 2: 1987-1999
Agheana, Ion T. The Meaning of Experience in the Prose of Jorge Luis Borges
Balderston, Daniel. Out of Context: Historical Reference and the Representation of Reality in Borges
Block de Behar, Lisa. Borges, la pasión de una cita sin fin / Borges: The Passion of an Endless Quotation
di Giovanni, Norman Thomas, ed. In Memory of Borges
di Giovanni, Norman Thomas, ed. The Borges Tradition
Fishburn, Evelyn, ed. Borges and Europe Revisited
Fishburn, Evelyn and Psiche Hughes. A Dictionary of Borges
Friedman, Mary Lusky. The Emperor’s Kites: A Morphology of Borges’s Tales
Isbister, Rob & Peter Standish. A Concordance to the Works of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
Sarlo, Beatriz. Jorge Luis Borges: the Writer on the Edge
Stabb, Martin S. Borges Revisited
General Criticism 3: 2000–Present
Andrade, Max Ubelaker. Borges Beyond the Visible
Balderston, Daniel & Nora Benedict, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Jorge Luis Borges
Balderston, Daniel. How Borges Wrote
Benedict, Nora C. Borges and the Literary Marketplace
Bloom, Harold, ed. Major Short Story Writers: Jorge Luis Borges
Bloom, Harold, ed. BioCritiques: Jorge Luis Borges
Boldy, Steven. A Companion to Jorge Luis Borges
Butler, Rex. Borges’ Short Stories: A Reader’s Guide
de Costa, René. Humor in Borges.
Egginton, William & David E. Johnson, ed. Thinking with Borges
Fiddian, Robin. Jorge Luis Borges in Context
González, José Eduardo. Approaches to Teaching the Works of Jorge Luis Borges
Premat, Julio. Borges: An Introduction
Strathern, Paul. Borges in 90 Minutes
Williamson, Edwin, ed. Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges
Poetics
Cheselka, Paul. The Poetry and Poetics of Jorge Luis Borges
Cortínez, Carlos. Borges the Poet
Maier, Linda S. Borges and the European Avant-Garde
Running, Thorpe. Borges’ Ultraist Movement and Its Poets
Running, Thorpe. The Critical Poem: Borges, Paz, and Other Language-Centered Poets in Latin America
Comparative Criticism
Aizenberg, Edna, ed. Borges and His Successors: The Borgesian Impact on Literature and the Arts
Cozrinsky, Edgardo. Borges In/And/On Film
Dabove, Juan Pablo. Bandit Narratives in Latin America
de Castro, Juan E. Borges and Kafka, Bolaño and Bloom: Latin American Authors and the Western Canon
Egginton, William. The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
Esplin, Emron. Borges’s Poe: Influence and Reinvention of Edgar Allan Poe in Spanish America
Irwin, John T. The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story
Gracia, Jorge J.E. Painting Borges: Philosophy Interpreting Art Interpreting Literature
Jansen, Laura. Borges’ Classics: Global Encounters with the Graeco-Roman Past
Jenckes, Kate. Reading Borges After Benjamin: Allegory, Afterlife, and the Writing of History
Johnson, David E. Kant’s Dog: On Borges, Philosophy, and the Time of Translation
Novillo-Corvalán, Patricia. Borges and Joyce: An Infinite Conversation
Rodríguez-Luis, Julio. The Contemporary Praxis of the Fantastic: Borges and Cortázar
Roger, Sarah. Borges and Kafka: Sons and Writers
Toswell, M.J. Borges the Unacknowledged Medievalist: Old English and Old Norse in His Life and Work
Political & Theoretical Criticism
Aizenberg, Edna. Books and Bombs in Buenos Aires: Borges, Gerchunoff, and Argentine-Jewish Writing
Dapia, Sylvia G. Jorge Luis Borges, Post-Analytic Philosophy, and Representation
Fiddian, Robin. Postcolonial Borges: Argument and Artistry
Frisch, Mark. You Might Be Able to Get There from Here: Reconsidering Borges and the Postmodern
González, José Eduardo. Borges and the Politics of Form
Plot, Martín. Chaos and Cosmos: The Imaginary and the Political in Jorge Luis Borges
Read, Malcolm K. Jorge Luis Borges and His Predecessors: Notes Towards a Materialist History of Linguistic Idealism
Religious & Esoteric Criticism
Aizenberg, Edna. The Aleph Weaver
Alazraki, Jaime. Borges and the Kabbalah: And Other Essays on His Fiction and Poetry
Bossart, William H. Borges and Philosophy: Self, Time, and Metaphysics
Crossan, John Dominic. Raid on the Articulate: Comic Eschatology in Jesus and Borges
de Garayalde, Giovanna. Jorge Luis Borges: Sources and Illuminations
Flynn, Annette U. The Quest for God in the Work of Borges
Jaén, Didier T. Borges’ Esoteric Library
Jullien, Dominique. Borges, Buddhism, and World Literature: A Morphology of Renunciation Tales
Lima, Robert. Borges and the Esoteric
Stavans, Ilan. Borges, the Jew
Scientific Criticism
Bloch, William Goldbloom. The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges’ Library of Babel
Callus, Ivan, ed. Cy-Borges: Memories of the Posthuman in the Work of Jorge Luis Borges
Lapidot, Ema. Borges and Artificial Intelligence: An Analysis in the Style of Pierre Menard
Merrell, Floyd. Unthinking Thinking: Jorge Luis Borges, Mathematics and the New Physics
Quiroga, Rodrigo. Borges and Memory: Encounters with the Human Brain
Richardson, Bill. Borges and Space.
Sassón-Henry, Perla. Borges 2.0: From Text to Virtual Worlds
Note on Placement
The above categories are arbitrary, and some individual placement decisions may strike certain visitors as peculiar or even erroneous. For instance, why is Sarlo’s Writer on the Edge located under “General Criticism” and not “Political & Philosophical Criticism?” Aren’t the last four categories all technically “Comparative Criticism?” Don’t most critical works follow some kind of literary theory or philosophy?
Simply put, I made these choices to keep the “Borges Criticism” Web pages within a reasonable length! I only separated a book from “General Criticism” into a more specific category if the book’s title was clearly designed to evoke a particular association—Books and Bombs in Buenos Aires, for instance. So consider these categories broad and somewhat fluid. Indeed, I thought about simply lumping all the books together and categorizing each section by decade; but I believe that some form of thematic categorization is more helpful than a mere chronological listing.
Author: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 28 October 2024
Main Borges Page: The Garden of Forking Paths
Contact: quail(at)shipwrecklibrary(dot)com