Borges, the Jew PDF
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BORGES, THE JEW 34250_SP_STA_FM_00i-xii.indd 1 4/8/16 7:53 AM SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture ————— Jorge J. E. Gracia and Rosemary Geisdorfer Feal, editors 34250_SP_STA_FM_00i-xii.indd 2 4/8/16 7:53 AM BORGES, THE JEW Hegemony, Law, and Politics ILAN STAVANS State University of New York Press 34250_SP_STA_FM_00i-xii.indd 3 4/8/16 7:53 AM Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2016 Ilan Stavans All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever w ithout written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production, Laurie D. Searl Marketing, Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Stavans, Ilan, author. Title: Borges, the Jew / Ilan Stavans. Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2016] | Series: SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian thought and culture | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015036569 | ISBN 9781438461434 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438461441 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Borges, Jorge Luis, 1899–1986—Criticism and interpretation. | Judaism and literature. | Jews in literature. Classification: LCC PQ7797.B635 Z9183 2016 | DDC 868/.6209— dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015036569 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 34250_SP_STA_FM_00i-xii.indd 4 4/8/16 7:53 AM I feel a contentment in defeat. —“Deutsches Requiem” (1946) 34250_SP_STA_FM_00i-xii.indd 5 4/8/16 7:53 AM 34250_SP_STA_FM_00i-xii.indd 6 4/8/16 7:53 AM CONTENTS Preface: Outsider / ix Part I: Yo, judío / 1 Part II: Deutsches Requiem / 35 Part III: A Catalog of Jewish Symbols / 47 Part IV: Beyond Translation / 77 Part V: On the Language of Ghosts / 101 Coda: Borges y yo / 109 Acknowledgments / 129 Notes / 133 Index / 137 34250_SP_STA_FM_00i-xii.indd 7 4/8/16 7:53 AM 34250_SP_STA_FM_00i-xii.indd 8 4/8/16 7:53 AM PREFACE OUTSIDER It is perhaps ironic that Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), a life- long lover of orillas, the margin, the edge, is now a staple of Western Civilization, one of its spokespersons, his imagination having looped from a freak’s show in the remote Buenos Aires of the first half of the twentieth century to in irreplaceable ingredient to understand the postmodern condition. Outsider is an English word often used in Spanish, where it has a unique connotation: loner, renegade, iconoclast. Borges doesn’t use it in his Buenos Aires conference “The Argentine Writer and Tradition” (1951), where he talked of Jews as inno- vators because they “do not feel bound” by any devotion to culture, being at once insiders and unattached observers. The same might be said of him, not only in regard to Argentina but in general: he looks at things, borrowing from Spinoza, sub specie aeternitatis, as if from beyond. Another irony: Borges’s oeuvre is relatively short, yet it has generated an endless river of ink. That contrast is apparent in my personal library, where his stories, essays, poetry, and studies on literature make a short section compared with the endless exegesis they have fostered. (A large portion of the library is also made of translations of his work into all sorts of languages.) Why then add yet another volume to that abundance? My answer: Borges, the Jew highlights an aspect dear to me—his relentless desire (not to be confused with envy) to ix 34250_SP_STA_FM_00i-xii.indd 9 4/8/16 7:53 AM
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