Abstract

This paper discusses the purpose of musical inclusions within several of Jorge Luis Borges’s short stories through Deleuzian lines of flight. The common consideration of music in Borges’s works focuses primarily on his usage of the tango and milonga due to Borges’s own personal interests. This paper argues that Borges utilizes not only the tango but also other styles of music as a pathway of transcendence, temporarily allowing characters to surpass the limitations of mortality. The paper will first analyze Deleuze and Guattari’s formula on escaping organization, and the relationship between the rhizome, lines of flight, deterritorialization, and the body without organs. Then it considers how Borges’s works align with Deleuzian philosophies on rhizomes and the search for esoteric knowledge. It clarifies music as a primary line of flight through both philosophical and scientific research. Within Borges’s short stories “El hombre de la esquina rosada,” “El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan,” “El milagro secreto,” and “El fin,” music helps characters achieve the body without organs. Through this process they view their individual situations through new perspectives. By viewing Borges through a Deleuzian lens, we see that he uses music to generate lines of flight and transcend the mundane world in favor of the infinite. This paper considers music not only as an obsession of Borges’s, but also as a tool to incite change.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; Spanish and Portuguese

Rights

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