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To send books for review, please address them to: Borges Center, 1309 Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260, USA. Articles for consideration for the journal Variaciones Borges may be mailed as e-mail attachments (to borges@pitt.edu). For subscription information, please click here.

You are cordially invited to visit the other pages of the Center, devoted to our trilingual journal Variaciones Borges, the services "on line", the latest news, the collection of articles Borges Studies on Line and the database of Borges Center's Archive.

Why Borges

The international reputation of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) often hides what his work can offer as an object of interdisciplinary research.

Borges left a prolific body of literature, paradoxically distinguished by its internationalism and the nostalgic love for some mythical or minimal places: Buenos Aires, the "South", Iceland, England, the Far East, some courts, some street-corners. Passionately interested in Nordic mythology and languages, he systematically undertook the study of the old Scandinavian tongue. European intellectuals discovered and proclaimed his originality, even before he was recognized at home.

A deep philosopher of poetry and poet of philosophy, Borges presents each of his writings as an ontological enigma. And reciprocally, a borgesian story or poem often assumes the patterns of a treatise.

Although Borges could justifiably be considered the most erudite writer of this century, his works frequently provide the reader with moments of intact emotion or simple entertainment. Fantastic ontologies, synchronic genealogies, utopian grammars, fictional geographies, multiple universal histories, logical bestiaries, ornithological syllogisms, narrative ethics, imaginary mathematics, theological thrillers, nostalgic geometries and invented remembrances, are part of the huge landscape Borges' works offer both to the academic scholar and the casual reader. And over all things, the philosophy, conceived as perplexity, the thought as conjecture, and the poetry as the deepest form of rationality.

Being a pure "literature man", but paradoxically preferred by semioticians, mathematicians, philologists, philosophers and mythologists, Borges offers -through the perfection of his language, the extent of his knowledge, the universalism of his ideas, the originality of his fictions, and the beauty of his poetry- a real summa that does honour to the Spanish language and the universal mind.

Beyond Borges: Transverse Epistemologies

Borges used to say that he was less proud of his writings than of his readings. And it is true that, very often, his imitators prove to be quite mediocre writers, while the very borgesian distinguish themselves on the quality of their reading. Hence, the Borges Center is not exclusively devoted to the exegesis of Borges' writings, but principally to his way of reading: the way he reads the book, as a universe, the way he reads the universe, as book...

This determines some kind of "borgesian style", which goes beyond the person of Borges. This Borges style combines, and sometimes wisely jams, usually incompatible genres. A deep philosopher of poetry and poet of philosophy, Borges presents each of his writings as an ontological riddle. And reciprocally, a borgesian story or poem often assumes the patterns of a treatise. This Borges' style of intellectual behaviour which, although marginally, has been present throughout the history of thinking can be defined as a development of "transverse epistemologies". It is not to be taken for a pure interdisciplinarity, because what is here is less a confluence of methodologies than the epistemological displacement from one area of relevance to another (something as an "hypalagical" scientific attitude...).

This is horizon of the adventure the Center aims...

Background of the Center

In 1994 Ivan Almeida and Cristina Parodi founded the Jorge Luis Borges for Studies and Documentation at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. At that time, they asked, "Why create a Borges Center in a so faraway country? And why the University of Aarhus? Well, it is known that Jorge Luis Borges was 'mythically' attracted by the Nordic countries and to 'the words with which the rugged Nord sang its seas and its swords.' But that is just an emblematic argument... There is also a topological argument. Aarhus is not Argentine, and keeping far away from the 'eye of the hurricane' brings all the leisure to spend the time in reading and studying... Then, there is the historical reason. Two scholars at the University of Aarhus, one specialized in philosophy, the other in literature, sharing the same passion for this inexhaustible adventure, considered that the growing number of scholars across the world studying Borges' work calls for an international project dedicated to assembling their efforts. And the Borges Center was founded in response to that need. Borges' writings have always inspired, and still inspire, the most varied array of approaches. Among those subjects that touch upon borgesian scholarship can be included -to name only a few- literature, narratology, semiotics, linguistics and other language sciences; historiography, philosophy, theology and comparative mythology; folklore, bestiary, alchemy, and cabala; and even mathematics, cinema and tango. Such a wide horizon of intellectual involvements offers many unique opportunities for interdisciplinary research. This forecast soon proved to be right, and many of the best specialists in the world immediately brought their enthusiastic support."

Almeida and Parodi retired from the University of Aarhus in 2005 and the Borges Center moved to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa in the midwestern United States. When its director, Daniel Balderston, moved to the University of Pittsburgh in 2008, it moved to its current home.

Areas of Activities

The Center was created in September 1994 with the following two purposes:

a) To offer a documentation service about the subjects defined by the scope of the Center, principally the study of "transverse epistemologies"

b) To organize and promote, wherever required, the study of those subjects: it is not a matter of concentrating efforts on the exegesis of a sole author, but rather of exploring a shared intellectual field.

This double goal crystallised in the development of the following areas of activities:

Bibliographic service. Constitution of a library and archives containing published writings by or about Jorge Luis Borges. The copious amount of written material sent by their authors is being systematically catalogued in order to enlarge the existing bibliographic database. Part of the received manuscripts will be published in "Variaciones Borges." (See the list in the page devoted to services)
Research Structure. Academic and institutional support to scholars from different countries in the elaboration of thesis or publications. Encounter point for bibliographic exchanges.
Internet network. Documentation service and a future newsgroup through the Internet. Increasing awareness of subjects concerning the Center through the World Wide Web. This service is having a rapid expansion. Each day the staff of the Center is happy to answer questions and requests coming from all over the world
Meetings. Planning of lectures, seminars, meetings, and congresses on subjects concerning the Center. A symposium on Borges is planned for April 2007 (see associated part of this webpage).
Publications. Variaciones Borges: half-yearly publication containing a section devoted to thematic contributions, (mainly Borges and the transversal epistemologies) and another to bibliographic information and service exchanges. Variaciones Borges is published in Spanish, English and French and can be defined as a journal of philosophy, semiotics and literature.This item includes also publication of books.
Teaching. In Aarhus the teaching mission of the Center revolved around the Permanent Seminar, at the Center headquarters, in connection with the Spanish Department of the University of Aarhus. Invited professors included Michel Lafon, from the University of Grenoble, and there was frequent academic exchange. In Iowa regular courses are offered on Borges at the first-year undergraduate level (Reading Borges), advanced undergraduate level (senior seminar on Borges) and graduate seminars on Borges. Borges is also included in a wide variety of graduate and undergraduate courses.
Translation. Promotion of translation projects and discussion about the implications of the translation task.

Structure of the Center

The Borges Center is an academic center sponsored by the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures and the School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pittsburgh.

Advisory tasks are entrusted to an editorial committee, which is presently composed of the following individuals: Edna Aizenberg (Marymount Manhattan College), Lisa Block de Behar (Montevideo), Silvia Dapía (Purdue North Central), Evelyn Fishburn (London), Mark Frisch (Duquesne), Noé Jitrik (Buenos Aires), Michel Lafon (Grenoble), Nicolás Lucero (Georgia), Sylvia Molloy (New York), Rafael Olea Franco (Colegio de México), Julio Premat (Paris-VIII), Beatriz Sarlo (Buenos Aires), Saúl Sosnowski (Maryland), Peter Standish (East Carolina).

The editor of Variaciones Borges, and director of the Center, is Daniel Balderston. Alfredo Alonso Estenoz (Luther College) is the co-director of the Center.

The associate researchers. Individual researchers can propose activities (mainly thesis and seminars) to be integrated in the main project of the Center.

Permanent Seminar & Borges Chair

While the Center was at Aarhus, the Permanent Seminar was the principal element of the research project. It adopted the classic form of a workshop. what implied a true research stricto sensu, in which once a problem was circumscribed, no particular result was presumed. This procedure excluded the lecturing in the presentation of subjects and required a large involvement of the participants. Those were generally researchers and advanced students coming from different disciplines.

Concerning the themes, each semester a predetermined main theme gradually developed wider variations. The research project began in 1994, having as subject "Borges and the Rhetoric of Forms." The matter was, on the one hand, to explore how some rhetorical forms go beyond the boundaries of one sentence to become authentic "textual forms," i.e. by structuring a whole text (there are, for instance, hypalagical texts, oxymoronic texts, etc.). On the other hand, to explore how some "morphologies," be it prototypical, mathematical, logical (the circle, the spiral, the infinite, the mirror, the quotation, the paradox) frequently attained a structural value within the rhetoric of the text.

From September 1995 on, the seminar considered the "Histories of Eternity, or the Forms of Fantastic Theology." As a way to clarifying the question on the internal forms of textuality, the analysis considers Borges' formal devices to deal with theological subjects. Instead of tracing the references to some systematic theology, the purpose is to follow the steps of a particular theology which expressly defines itself as fictional and narrative. Theology is for Borges "a branch of fantastic literature," maybe the one which supposes all the others. In a way, because every faith is an act of narrative imagination but also because theology deals with what it itself defines as essentially unattainable. Many declared or implicit characters in Borges' stories are the infinite, time, identity, personal responsibility, and in all of them arises, narratively, the theological hypothesis.

In 1997, the seminar concerned the "Indirect Knowledge". Taking as starting point the detective stories of "Six problems for Don Isidro Parodi," the procedures of irony and of conjecture were studied, as they characterized the "non-immediate" knowledge and presentation of reality.

The Borges Chair, reserved to invited full-professors, was inaugurated by Michel Lafon, who held the Permanent Seminar in October 1995. In 1996, the Borges Chair was assumed by Prof. Mercedes Blanco, from University of Lille III, about the short story "Los Teólogos". (see updated information in the page devoted to "chronicles")

ASSOCIATED PROJECTS: Some individual and collective research projects have already been proposed to be acknowledged as activities associated with the Center. One such project is the conference on Borges and France, to be held at the Universidad Católica argentina in Buenos Aires in September 2009.

News

Important Note: Since this item should be updated more frequently, we invite you to read a special page of "chronicle" constantly updated. Thanks.

Useful Information

The University of Pittsburgh
Borges Center
1309 Cathedral of Learning
Pittsburgh, PA   15260 USA

tel:  412-624-1206
email:  borges@pitt.edu
web:  www.borges.pitt.edu