The Comedy of Language in Borges' "La Busca de Averroes"

Publication Date

Spring 2006

Document Type

Article

Abstract

It is true that Jorge Luis Borges liked to scorn the medium of his own form of art for its limitations. But the critical consensus about the failures of language in Borges' stories takes him too much at his word; it is too negative and too simplistic, even with regard to those cases in which Borges himself affirms or seems to affirm it. "La busca de Averroes" ("Averroes' Search"), for example, he describes as "a story of failure." And yet the single failure portrayed sits atop a heap of successes that reveal language as conqueror of history, culture, and subjectivity.

Publication Title

Rocky Mountain Review Of Language And Literature

Volume

60

Issue

1

First Page

53

Last Page

69

DOI

10.2307/4143878

Publisher Policy

policy not available in SHERPA/RoMEO

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