Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges: A Concoction of Post-human Wisdom

Abstract

Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine author, poet, essayist and philosopher who greatly influenced the Latin American Boom, a literary movement that arose in the latter half of the twentieth century wherein Latin American literature became highly popular all around the world. Julio Cortázar, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa were some of the writers associated with the Boom Latinamericano. The influence of the then avant-garde ultraísmo movement that strongly influenced Borges and which he introduced to South American literary circles and which ultimately even influenced Marxist poetry can be spotted throughout his works. The movement advocated emphasis on stark intellectualism and experimentation which form an integral part of Borges’ writing. The indistinguishability of reality and fiction, author and writer, public persona and inner self are themes that resound in his labyrinthine works. Questions raised and mysteries developed in his stories never achieve a satisfactory answer or solution. The nature of his fiction represented the nature of the universe-enigmatic, unfathomable and inexplicable. Language is used as a tool by him to rewrite his own version of history, literature, mythology, reality and theology. He blurred the lines between fact and fiction, reality and hyperreality and even genres such as poetry and prose. His short stories are so intricately designed, allusive and symbolic that they are often called prose poems.