The Problems of Language and AuthenticityJulian Barnes in Dialogue with Borges

  1. BOTERO CAMACHO, Manuel 1
  2. MARTINICORENA ZARATIEGUI, Sofia 1
  1. 1 Universidad Complutense de Madrid
    info

    Universidad Complutense de Madrid

    Madrid, España

    ROR 02p0gd045

Journal:
Revista Letral

ISSN: 1989-3302

Year of publication: 2017

Issue Title: Misceláneo

Issue: 19

Pages: 53-67

Type: Article

DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

More publications in: Revista Letral

Abstract

The article attempts to make a comparative study of Flaubert’s Parrot (1984) and England, England (1998), two of Julian Barnes’ most celebrated novels, and Jorge Luis Borges’ selected short fiction. Knowing positively that Barnes read Borges, this text will trace the correspondences and (dis) similarities that constitute the echoes of Borges that can be uncovered in Barnes. The main focus will be on the notion of authenticity, its problematization and other subsidiary literary and philosophical obsessions common to both authors, namely the opposition between the archetype and the copy, identity problems and the reliability of memory. Language and its problems will be considered as the thread that binds all these topics together. The method employed will be the analysis of potential intertextuality regardless of biographical or contextual aspects.

Bibliographic References

  • Barnes, Julian (1990). Flaubert’s Parrot. New York: Vintage.
  • --- (2012). England, England. London: Vintage.
  • Baudrillard, Jean (1995). “The Precession of Simulacra.” Art after Modernism: rethinking representation, edited by Brian Wallis. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 253-281.
  • Benjamin, Walter (2007). “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Re- production”. Illuminations, edited by Hannah Arendt. New York: Schocken Books, 217-251.
  • Borges, Jorge Luis (1954). “Funes, el memorioso”, en Ficciones. Buenos Aires: Emecé Editores.
  • --- (1987). “La casa de Asterión”, en El Aleph. Buenos Aires: Emecé Editores.
  • --- (1996a). “Dedicatoria al lector”, en Fervor de Buenos Aires, Obras Completas I. Barcelona: Emecé Editores.
  • --- (1996b). “La flor de Coleridge”, en Obras Completas II. Barcelona: Emecé Editores.
  • --- (1996c). “La noche de los dones”, en El libro de arena, Obras Completas III. Barcelona: Emecé Editores.
  • --- (1996d). “El otro tigre”, en El hacedor, Obras Completas II. Barcelona: Emecé Editores.
  • --- (1996e). “Parábola del palacio”, en El hacedor, Obras Completas II. Barcelona: Emecé Editores.
  • --- (1996f). “El pudor de la historia”, en Otras Inquisiciones, Obras Completas II. Barcelona: Emecé Editores.
  • --- (1996g). “La rosa de Paracelso”, en La memoria de Shakespeare, Obras Completas III. Barcelona: Emecé Editores.
  • --- (1996h). “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”, en Ficciones, Obras Completas I. Barcelona: Emecé Editores.
  • --- (1996i). “Avatares de la tortuga”, en Discusión, Obras Completas I. Barcelona: Emecé Editores.
  • Button Burlá, Flora (1994). Los juegos fantásticos. México D.F: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Universidad Autónoma de México
  • Eco, Umberto (2002). Interpretation and overinterpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Moneta, Leticia (2013). “El museo y la enciclopedia: Lecturas cruzadas de Borges y Barnes.” Confluenze, vol. 5, nº 2, 68-80.
  • ---. “Borges y sus precursores: la obra de Julian Barnes” http://www. bn.gov.ar/media/page/moneta.pdf. Accessed 03/04/2017
  • Poe, Edgar Allan (1990). “The Oval Portrait” en Sixty-Seven Tales. New Jersey: Gramercy Books, 305-307.
  • Swift, Jonathan (1994). Gulliver’s Travels. Reading: Penguin Group.
Data source: Dialnet