The most important legacy of the Argentine writer in a single book: “Babylonian Borges”

(By Carlos Aletto) Just when questions and controversies are growing around the continuity of his literary legacy after the death of his widow and executor -María Kodama-, the first edition in Spanish of “Babilonic Borges” is published in Argentina. , an encyclopedic dictionary on the life and work of the author of “Fictions” originally published in Portuguese to which new entries are now added to correct absences from the original version, as well as a rewrite and correction of some existing entries, such as those referring to homophobia and the story “Emma Zunz”.

“Babylonian Borges” is an encyclopedia containing 1,220 entries and was first published in Portuguese in 2017 by Companhia das Letras in São Paulo. “Doing it now in Buenos Aires with the Fondo de Cultura Económica is a dream come true,” says Jorge Schwartz, a writer born in Posadas in 1944 and who has lived in Brazil since 1960, in the new prologue.

This new edition includes new entries that correct some omissions from the original version. Reviews of critical works and new entries are also included where, for example, the topic of homophobia is addressed, and the pseudonym shared in the joint writing with Adolfo Bioy Casares, H. Bustos Domecq. In the Brazilian edition, the entry “Zunz, Emma” was not found either, which was written by the late sociologist and essayist Horacio González in 2019.

“Borges Babilónico” is a team effort about the life and work of the Argentine writer who died in 1986. Schwartz explains that towards the end of the 1990s, the Globo publishing house in São Paulo published the “Complete Works of Borges” in four volumes. . The compiler, along with his collaborator and editorial assistant, María Carolina de Araujo, were in charge of preparing that edition. During the process, extensive research was conducted and numerous consultations took place. Based on all the collected material, they decided to create a glossary, or what they initially called “Borges’ Reading Guide for Brazil”, which eventually became known as the “Borges Guide” and forms an essential part of the encyclopedia.

In the encyclopedia, interpretations of texts were avoided and the rule that all entries would make specific reference to the work of Borges was adopted. The dictionary also includes small thematic essays prepared by specialists in different areas of knowledge related to the work of the author of “El Aleph”.

In one of the most interesting entries, the researcher Daniel Balderston advances on the alleged homophobia in the Argentine writer. The term discusses Borges’s interest in homosexuality as a literary theme and as a life option for some people close to him. Most of the direct references to this question in his literature are indirect, as in the essay on Oscar Wilde in which Borges describes him as “a man who keeps, despite habits of evil and misfortune, an invulnerable innocence”. (“On Oscar Wilde”, in “Other inquisitions”). The entry also mentions an anecdote about a discovery that the Argentine narrator made in Tucumán thanks to the testimony of a professor, who stated that homosexuals ride bicycles because “the bicycle excites the malevo.” Furthermore, the article addresses the hypothesis that Borges suffered from homosexual panic, which influenced his writing, but Balderston notes that it is an “unfortunate oversimplification to call Borges a repressed homosexual.”

The essayist also analyzes the homosocial themes in the literature of the author of “Funes el memorioso”, such as the relationship between a young man who imitates models of manhood and a mature man who becomes a rival, and how the young man’s provocation generates violence. The term also discusses two short stories, “La secta del Fénix” and “La intrusa”, which have been studied from a homosexual perspective. The article highlights the complexity of the treatment of homosexuality in the work of Borges.

The work has been enriched thanks to the collaboration of an extensive group of renowned specialists. Among them are Alberto Manguel, Beatriz Sarlo, Horacio González, Ricardo Piglia and Saúl Sosnowski. It is also important to highlight the work of Adriana Astutti, Edgardo Cozarinsky and Isabel Stratta, among others.

All the interests of the writer can be found in the entries in this encyclopedia, which shows the great diversity of topics that attracted his attention and that could have influenced his literary work. Borges, as is known, was a great reader and writer, therefore he was interested in a wide range of writers and literary works. In addition, his interest in the geography and history of Argentina is reflected in many of his stories and poems that are set in specific places, such as Buenos Aires or the Argentine pampa.

It is also evident that he was interested in historical and religious subjects, such as the 1904 Revolution or the Apocrypha, which were of interest to him. In fact, many of his stories and poems explore themes related to religion and philosophy, such as Gnosticism or Buddhism. In short, the encyclopedia entries present a wide range of his interests. Some specific examples are the authors JB Priestley, Arthur Rimbaud, Ernesto Sabato, Dorothy L. Sayers and William Shakespeare, among others; the literary works “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Arthur Conan Doyle, “La refalosa” by Hilario Ascasubi, “The romance of the rose” by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, and “The sagas of Iceland”, among others. Regarding the geographical places, Recoleta, Rivadavia avenue, Plaza San Martín, all places in Buenos Aires, among others, appear.

An entry to highlight is that of “Autofiguration; autobiographical representations”, written by the collaborator Alfredo Alonso Estenoz. There, the scholar explores the autofiguration and autobiographical representations of the writer throughout his career: he points out that the image that Borges built of himself varied at different times and that various factors came together in its construction, including his public and media figure, his self-representations in his fictional and poetic work, and the way he characterized his work and himself in the forewords of his books and in autobiographical notes. This term also highlights the closeness of the characteristics of Borges’ fictional characters to the real author, as well as the difficulties in determining how much of the self-figuration of the author of “Las ruinas circularas” was intentional and how much was a legitimate aesthetic budget. Finally, the close relationship between Borges and the character of the same name that appears in several of his stories is highlighted, which is considered one of his fictional achievements.

Another important biographical moment of the author of “El Aleph” is the entry “Redress to Borges”, written by Rodríguez Monegal, where the essayist states that “despite so much literary activity, Borges was largely unknown in Argentina, and his name was not recognized by the official world”. This encyclopedia entry stops to talk about the lack of recognition for the writer in his native country in the 1940s. Despite his literary talent, the author of “Death and the Compass” had received second prize at the literary contest organized by the Municipality of Buenos Aires. Although Borges did not give much importance to this situation, his friends reacted vigorously and organized a “Reparation to Borges” in July 1942, in which twenty-one writers joined to praise his work. Despite this slight, he continued to write and publish.

“Babylonian Borges” (Fondo de Cultura Económica) offers in its 1,220 entries a journey through the work of Borges, from “1910” to “Zunz, Emma”, but, in addition, it is a consultation tool, which can also be read for discover surprises and new readings of the narrative of the most universal Argentine writer.