Keywords

Borges’s late poetry, literary conservatism, poetic self-repetition

Abstract

La poesfa tardfa de Bo,ges podrfa parecer conservadora y hasta redundante para el lector que ya conoce sus cuentos y su poesfa temprana. No obstante, en el presente artfculo propongo una interpretadon de la ceguera en su poesfa tardfa, interpretdndola como motivo estructurador vinculado con el proyecto de sus obras mejor conoc1das. De interis especial es la cuestion de! cardcter aparentemente ilusorio de! yo. Basdndome en la filosefia analftica contempordnea, hago una distindon entre la identtficadon metajfsica y la identtficadon estitica. .Esta, a mi ver, nos propordona una clave esendal para entender la fancion de la primera persona gramatical en la poesfa borgesiana y evitar el esceptidsmo algo simplista que muchos crfticos le atribuyen.

I suspect that most readers of Borges's late poetry are not enamoured of it. Certainly, no one would deny that an image here or there is memorable, or that the verses themselves are generally well crafted, or that the master is still capable of displaying an admirable erudition in his mature poems. In fact, a few texts - "Poema de los clones" and "Arte poetica" come to mind - have rightly found a place in many literary anthologies. But the reader who has come to Borges through Ficdones and El aleph - or even the earlier volumes of poetry such as Fervor de Buenos Aires - is likely to tum the pages of Larosa pr

Original Publication Citation

"The Blind Spot in the Mirror: Self-Recognition and Personal Identity in Borges’s Late Poetry.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 29.2 (2005): 307-25