1976

<--1975 1977-->

Biography

Military coup against Isabel Perón government, 24 March 1976. Travels to Spain, the United States, Mexico and Chile. Symposium on Borges at the University of Maine. The University of Cincinnati gives him a doctorate honoris causa, as does the Universidad de Santiago in Chile. Receives the Orden de Mérito de Bernardo O'Higgins from the Pinochet government in Chile.

Locations

In a year of extensive travel, Borges visits Spain, Maine, Cincinnati, Washington D.C., Mexico, Chile, Italy, West Virginia, Chicago, La Jolla, East Lansing, Wisconsin, Atlanta, Utah, Colorado, Los Angeles, Gettysburg, San Antonio, Austin, and Bowling Green, among other locations.

Historical Context

Military coup (“Process of National Reorganization”). President María Estela ("Isabelita") Martínez de Perón placed under arrest. General Jorge R. Videla appointed president. Massive and systematic violations of human rights begin with the abduction and clandestine execution of citizens ("the disappeared").  José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz, Minister  of the Economy, begins market-oriented economic reforms.

Books

• Qué es el budismo. Buenos Aires: Columba, 1976. [Written in collaboration with Alicia Jurado.]
• Antología de la literatura fantástica. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1976, 435 pp. [Fifth edition of anthology compiled with Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo.]
• Cosmogonías. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Libreria la Ciudad, 1976. 29 pp. [With illustrations by Aldo Sessa.]
• Prólogo, Los destinos, La luna, El desierto, Génesis, IV, 8, Cosmogonía, De que nada se sabe, Aclaración sobre los poemas.
• Cuentos breves y extraordinarios. Buenos Aires: Losada, 1975. 152 pp. [Second edition.]
• Evaristo Carriego. Madrid: Alianza, 1976. 131 pp.
• Libro de sueños. Buenos Aires: Torres Agüero, 1976. 152 pp. [With a preface by Borges and an anthology of dreams by various authors.]
• Los mejores cuentos policiales, Segunda serie. Madrid: Alianza, 1976. 329 pp. [Second Alianza edition.]
• La moneda de hierro. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1976. 162 pp. [First edition.]
• Prólogo, Elegía del recuerdo imposible, Coronel Suárez, La pesadilla, La víspera, Una llave de East Lansing, Elegía de la patria, Hilario Ascasubi (1807-1875), México, El Perú, A Manuel Mujica Láinez, El inquisidor, El conquistador, Herman Melville, El ingenuo, La luna, A Johannes Brahms, A mi padre, La suerte de la espada, El remordimiento, 991 A.D., Einar Tambarskelver, En Islandia el alba, Olaus Magnus, Los ecos, Unas monedas: Génesis, 9, 13, Mateo, 27, 9, Un soldado de Uribe, Baruch Spinoza, Episodio del enemigo, Para una versión del I king, Ein traum, Juan Crisóstomo Lafinur (1797-1824), Heráclito, La clepsidra, No eres los otros, Signos, La moneda de hierro, Notas.
• Otras inquisiciones. Madrid: Alianza, 1976. 194 pp. 

Periodical Publications

• Una llave de East Lansing. La Nación (15 February 1976), third section, p. 1. [Poem included in La moneda de hierro.]
• Heráclito. La Nación (9 May 1976), third section, p. 1. [Poem included in La moneda de hierro.]
• Más allá del bien y del mal. La Opinión (23 May 1976), cultural supplement, pp. 2-4. [Story written with Adolfo Bioy Casares under the pseudonym H. Bustos Domecq.]
• Herman Melville. La Nación (4 July 1976), third section, p. 1. [Poem included in La moneda de hierro.]
• [Homenaje a Mallea.] La Nación (15 August 1976), third section, p. 1.
• Elegía del recuerdo imposible. La Nación (22 August 1976), third section, p. 1. [Poem included in La moneda de hierro.]
• El espejo. La Nación (22 August 1976), third section, p. 1. 
• Alhambra. La Nación (10 October 1976), third section, p. 1.
• Endimión en Latmos. La Nación (7 November 1976), third section, p. 1.
• Un sábado. La Nación (12 December 1976), third section, p. 1.
• Las versiones homéricas. Sur 338-339 (January-December 1976), pp. 105-12. [Reprint of essay from Discusión in an issue on translation.]
• El oficio de traducir. Sur 338-339 (January-December 1976), pp. 118-20. [Included in Borges en Sur, pp. 321-325.]
• Poema conjetural. Sur 338-339 (January-December 1976), pp. 182-83. 
• Mateo XXV, 30. Sur 338-339 (January-December 1976), p. 185. 

Interviews

• Yates, Donald, et al. A Colloquy With Jorge Luis Borges. The Gypsy Scholar [Michigan State] 3.3 (1976), pp. 65-76. [Included in Jorge Luis Borges: Conversations. Ed.Richard Burgin. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1998. pp. 149-63.]
  • Hanson: This 1976 discussion is moderated by Yates and questions are asked by the audience. Borges speaks of English language authors and literature, reading, literary criticism, the allegory, writing, and the English language.
• Borges inédito…y profético: Una visión de los Estados Unidos. Cuestionario 4.38 (1976), pp. 1561-63. [Included in Borges: Dos palabras antes de morir y otras entrevistas. Comp. Fernando Mateo. Buenos Aires: LC Editor, 1994. pp. 109-18.]
  • Hanson: Borges describes the United States and its citizens. For example, Borges feels American students only read for school and do little home reading, American libraries have many books, and Americans are a lonely people.
• Borges on Borges. Colorado Quarterly 25 (1976), pp. 138-53.
  • Hanson: Borges discusses several themes of interest, such as: how literature has influenced him, genre divisions, how his youth in Geneva influenced him, Ultraism, film, “El sur,” “El milagro secreto,” Argentina, “Borges y yo,” dreams, and music.
• Borges, Jorge Luis, and Ernesto Sábato. Diálogos. Ed. Orlando Barone. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1976.
  • Hanson: This 200-page book records Barone’s interviews with Borges and Sábato between 1974 and 1975. Borges and Sábato converse about when they met, literature, Martín Fierro, God, language, film, short story, novel, the Quijote, music, success, dreams, philosophy, heaven and hell, creation, Borges’s literary works, and death.
• Geneson, Paul. Interview with Jorge Luis Borges. Michigan Quarterly Review 16 (1977), pp. 243-55.
  • Hanson: A thorough 1976 interview that touches on a wide range of literary topics, including: literary genre, poetry, novel, film, Spanish and English authors and works, literary criticism, science fiction, and his views on teaching and writing.
• Espejo, Miguel, and Carlos Dámaso Martínez. Jorge Luis Borges: ‘Soy un escritor y quizás un poeta.' La Palabra y el Hombre [Xalapa, Mexico] 18 (1976), pp. 14-22. [Repeated in Clarín [sec. Cultura y Nación] (16 Jun 1988), p 8.]
  • Hanson: In this short interview Borges’s modesty is apparent. He answers questions regarding art, knowledge, his fame, science, and language.
• Se llama Borges: se le perdona todo…hasta su racismo. Revista Extra 12.133 (1976).
  • Hanson: Veteran interviewer Neustadt cannot seem to get the upper hand on Borges, who offers witty answers to intentionally provocative questions. Borges responds to his questions, but leaves the reader asking if he is serious. Topics include Blacks, race, democracy, love, liberty, friendship, and the languages Borges knows.
• An Interview with Jorge Luis Borges: "...Merely a Man of Letters.” Philosophy and Literature 1.3 (1977), pp. 337-41.
  • Hanson: Borges discusses how philosophers and philosophical methods are employed in his writings in this 1976 interview.
• Jorge Rivera and Jorge Lafforgue. Orden y violencia. Crisis (January 1976).
• Entre recuerdos, fama y soledad. Revista Familia Cristiana [Buenos Aires] (January 1976), pp 24-28. [Included in Borges: Dos palabras antes de morir y otras entrevistas. Comp. Fernando Mateo. Buenos Aires: LC Editor, 1994. pp. 159-71.
  • Hanson: This interview begins with Borges explaining why he gives interviews. He also tells about a knife fights in Palermo, movies that have been made from his stories, his training as a writer, his style, reflections on his life, his first love, death, and fame.
• Enguídanos, Miguel, et al. Now I am More or Less Who I am. Ed. and trans. Willis Barnstone. [Included in Jorge Luis Borges: Conversations. Ed. Richard Burgin. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1998. pp. 164-75.]
  • Hanson: This is the edited transcript of a colloquium held at the University of Indiana on April 1, 1976. Borges comments on his writing, himself as a character in his stories, Rio de la Plata literature, ethics, his influences, Spanish authors, God, and literary criticism.
• Martín Müeller. Borges frente a Borges. La Opinion: Cultural (9 May 1976), pp. 1-4.

  • Hanson: This article records a speech that Borges gave in 1975, in which he talks humbly about being a writer. He makes observations on his poetry, his stories, language, inspiration, and how much writers earn.
• Soler Serrano, Joaquín. Entrevista a Jorge Luis Borges en A fondo. Radio Televisión Española (1976).

Talks

• An Afternoon with Borges. Tropos [Michigan State University, East Lansing] 5.1 (Spring 1976), pp. 1-11. [Transcription of a talk given during Borges's visit to Michigan State in October 1975.]
• Reflections on My Life and Work. Lakeside [Illinois] 1.3 (Spring 1976), pp. 2-3 and 20. [Transcript of a talk given at Northwestern University on 5 February 1975.]
• [El escritor y su tiempo: Borges frente a Borges.] La Opinión (9 May 1976), cultural supplement, pp. 2-4. [Transcription of a talk given on 1 November 1975.]
• A Chain of Endless Tigers: Borges at the University of Winsconsin-Milwaukee, April 9, 1976
  
• Discurso por la entrega del honoris causa a Borges en la Universidad Nacional de la Plata, 1976:

Criticism

• Alazraki, Jaime, ed. Jorge Luis Borges. Madrid: Taurus, 1976. 364 pp.