Texte remanié de: Thesis Ph. D.--Binghampton, N.Y.--State university of New York. / Bibliogr. p. 286-295. Index.

Approaching the idea of the library as a polyvocal, self-contradictory and even paradoxical dream, this thesis examines five select texts to examine how this dream emerges across vastly different representations in fiction. Discussed texts include Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Library of Babel” and “The Book of Sand,” Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, Ian McEwan’s Atonement, and Thomas Wharton’s Salamander. Special attention is given to the archetypal opposition between daytime’s clarity and night’s disorder, as well as to Alberto Manguel’s two hypothesized library foundational myths, the Tower of Babel and the Library of Alexandria. Although it attempts to remain conscious of social realities surrounding and producing historical libraries, this thesis is primarily concerned with the textual irruption of libraries in fictional narratives, and while its argument articulates the problematic dimension of libraries, it also endeavours to show how libraries are healthy, necessary, and even inevitable human creations. / A survey of library representations in select literary texts.

No se posee.

L'objectif de ce mémoire est d'observer la relation obsessionnelle qui se développe entre les figures du livre apparaissant dans trois nouvelles de l'écrivain argentin Jorge Luis Borges et les personnages-lecteurs entrant en contact avec elles. À travers l'étude de l'apparition et l'évolution de ces figures dans « Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius », « La Bibliothèque de Babel » et « Le livre de sable », nous en déterminons les impacts et les conséquences sur les personnages et leurs univers fictionnels. Notre analyse considère que l'obsession des personnages pour une représentation de la figure du livre est déclenchée exclusivement lorsque cette dernière se présente comme la figure du Livre total, le livre contenant tout. Dans un premier temps, nous déterminons ce que nous entendons par figure. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons principalement la théorie du symbole élaborée par Maurice Blanchot dans Le livre à venir (1959) et celle de la figure présentée par Bertrand Gervais dans Figures, Lectures - Logiques de l'imaginaire Tome 1 (2007). À partir de celles-ci, nous analysons les éléments nécessaires à l'apparition d'une figure dans un texte littéraire et nous étudions comment elle parvient à s'installer en tant que le centre d'attention des sujets avec lesquels elle entre en relation. Ces théories nous permettent d'affirmer que l'essence même d'une figure est l'obsession qu'elle parvient à susciter chez un sujet. Sans elle, il n'y a pas de figure. Nous faisons, ensuite, une analyse de la bibliographie critique. D'une part, nous étudions la signification du livre selon Jorge Luis Borges en nous appuyant essentiellement sur la conférence sur le livre qu'il donna en 1978. D'autre part, nous nous penchons sur plusieurs analyses sur son œuvre qui portent sur le rôle primordial que le livre joue dans celle-ci. De plus, nous remarquons que certains critiques signalent la présence chez Borges d'un objet livresque encore plus important : le Livre total. Ainsi, nous portons une attention particulière à la constitution d'un tel objet, afin de déterminer comment il parvient à prendre une place essentielle dans certains des textes borgésiens. Pour terminer, nous identifions les représentations de la figure du Livre dans chacune des trois nouvelles analysées. Nous décrivons leur apparition dans les univers textuels et expliquons comment elles parviennent à devenir obsédantes pour les personnages avec lesquels elles entrent en contact. Pour ce faire, nous mettons de l'avant le caractère infini de la figure du Livre et le concept du Livre monde qu'elle englobe. Finalement, nous explorons les différents impacts que cette obsession a sur les personnages et leur univers respectif en analysant l'évolution des composantes obsessionnelles entourant chacune des figures du Livre. Nous constatons que c'est l'impossibilité pour les personnages-lecteurs de satisfaire leur obsession qui cause ces conséquences, et que celles-ci deviennent alors irréversibles. ______________________________________________________________________________

The English-language translations of Jorge Luis Borges’s Spanish-language works undertaken by the author and Norman Di Giovanni went above and beyond what is generally perceived as acceptable in traditional Western practices. Their work, together with Borges’s thoughts on translation itself, garnered criticism from within Western Translation Studies for its rejection of the status of the original text and the blurring of the distinction between author and translator. Yet the pair’s actions and Borges’s views on translation cease to appear scandalous under the light of Buddhist philosophy, particularly through the use of the Buddhist principles that all phenomena are impermanent and interdependent. This thesis will seek to use these ideas to legitimize the actions of Borges and Di Giovanni. To do so, it will trace the history of opposing and convergent theories from Western philosophy and describe our Buddhist concepts in detail. In order to better understand Borges, it will examine the array of philosophies that influenced the writer and how they both align themselves and differ from Buddhist ideas. This thesis will end by directly applying impermanence and interdependence to the translation practices of Borges and Di Giovanni and considering what potential effect legitimacy for such practices would have on translation overall.

En las letras argentinas, en particular, y aun en el ámbito de la cultura universal, se destaca la figura de Jorge Luis Borges, como poeta y pensador. A través de la lectura de sus obras, es posible descubrir a un narrador inquisitivo que, a la vez que medita sobre el valor de la palabra en la Modernidad, postula una Estética que conduce a la reflexión filosófica.En efecto, la mayoría de sus textos nos remiten, por vía de una Poética, ya sea a lo metafísico -el problema del tiempo y del ser , o a lo teológico -fundado en la cuestión de la Eternidad--.Atentos a tal particularidad de la obra borgeana, es el propósito de esta tesis investigar ese acercamiento a los grandes problemas filosóficos, planteados por el escritor argentino, a partir de la exégesis de su arte poética, es decir, a partir del análisis significativo de la palabra.Sobre la base de las producciones del poeta en las que se incluyen los campos semánticos de Cielo - Infierno, Cuerpo y Alma, Bien y Mal, Fe y Razón, se construye un universo lingüístico semiótico en el cual, una vez delimitados los ámbitos estético y filológico, es posible trascender el análisis puramente lingüístico, a fin de alcanzar las connotaciones filosóficas que operan en la obra del escritor argentino. A partir del examen del papel denotativo - connotativo de la palabra, y la relación entre metáfora y símbolo, concatenadas a su vez con la analogía, pueden asimismo delimitarse los mecanismos con que operan Poesía y Filosofía. Reconocido el influjo filosófico, se establece que dos son las profundas raíces de las que Borges es deudor: nominalista una, neoplatónica la otra. Por lo tanto, en primer término, se evalúa la adhesión a la postura de la desacralidad de la palabra, de fuerte raíz nominalista. Se analiza el influjo de Guillermo de Ockham y el del empirismo inglés (Locke, Berkeley, Hume) respecto del lenguaje.En segundo término, se investiga el uso del nombre como símbolo, bajo el influjo de platonismo y neoplatonismo. Se reúnen los conceptos desarrollados en las secciones precedentes, ahondando la reflexión respecto del ideario platónico y su reelaboración lingüístico semiótica en la obra de Borges. Se delimitan los alcances de una postura filosófica plena, y las limitaciones en el acceso a la reflexión sobre el Ser si se prescinde de una vía iluminativa. Se estudia cómo y hasta dónde una Estética puede conseguir trascendencia. Se propende igualmente a integrar las reflexiones sobre Estética y verdad filosófica, constituidas en relación a una filosofía del lenguaje.A la luz de la exégesis se corroboran las siguientes consideraciones:Las reflexiones filosóficas de Borges están elaboradas en función de un objetivo filológico hermenéutico y/o estético.Filosofía y Literatura se constituyen en un aparato conceptual desde el cual mirar el mundo.La meta de la poética borgeana es remitir a una Metafísica por vía de la palabra. / Jorge Luis Borges, the argentine writer, is greatly recognised in the fields of Literature, as a famous and most excellent poet, as well as in Philosophy, due to his texts about Time, Eternity, Theology. His production includes the reflections about Aesthetics, the value of the poetical word, the exquisite meditations about connotative symbols, metaphors and analogies. Based upon this particularity of the poetical productions, the aim of the present work is to determine strong considerations about the constant mention of the philosophical world in Borges. The exegesis of his poems, stories and pages including elaboration of different semantic fields, (such as the dualism of Body and Soul, Heaven and Hell, Faith and Ration, Goodness and Badness) leads into a philosophical reflection. This particularity is strongly determined by two aspects of the History of Philosophy: the English empirism, which characters are included in Borges's texts providing refutations to Metaphysics; and the influence of Platonism, which is present in a production leading to a world of manifestation of the sacred God.To sum up, we consider that the most important contributions to the exegesis for the study of the production of Borges are:- The philosophical reflections are undoubtedly proof of an hermeneutic objective, in pro of Philology and Aesthetics,- Philosophy and Literature constitute a conceptual basis over which the context world is understood and developed,- The aim of the Poetic elaboration in Borges is a Metaphysical goal constructed upon the intensive dealing with the Beauty which is omnipresent in every word.

Borges saw narrative as the bearer of universally re-combinable elements. Although these elements seem sequential, their essential formal integrity guarantees their rearrangement to generate new narratives. The ficción lives beyond its author. However, Borges’ ontological anxieties also have a life of their own that undermines the ficción’s assimilative potential. By developing poetic and linguistic insights Borges creates immortal text through the construction of a symbolic repertoire. Each element of the repertoire has its genesis in the author’s personal development. This history is archaeologised in the early poetry and mediated through a theory of metaphor and the reader’s interaction with the text. Borges sees no need for a Freudian reading theory. Instead he develops an antipsychological poetics. He enlists the reader as a willing participant in the text by a dual strategy of symbolic incorporation. Firstly, readers identify with characters through vicarious emotional prediction. Secondly, he refreshes the reader’s participation by presenting emblematic devices serving as sub-text to enhance symbolic participation. Together these strategies constitute a ‘magic causality’ of negotiated textual interpretation continually operating in his narratives. But the discipline of magic causality also conceals a rhetoric of presence establishing counter-motivational effects to disturb symbolic incorporation at the level of genre. The dissertation extracts key features for scrutiny from Borges’ early literary theory and criticism, elaborating them into a general aesthetic programme. It examines biographical influences in shaping his critical and creative work. It problematises his texts from the point of view of his ideas about linguistics, their identity as contributions to the genre of the ficción, and the centrality of metaphor and analogy as interpretative strategies. I use a number of approaches for this enterprise, including biographical criticism (ontological preoccupations), substitutional analysis (temporal subjectivity), linguistic interpretation (theory of metaphor), literary criticism (readerly reception), structuralism (readerly incorporation), and deconstruction (rhetoric of suppression). The dissertation pragmatically investigates, and contests, Borges’ assimilative poetics of textual presence.

ABSTRACT WHERE WE CANNOT SPEAK The poetry collection Where We Cannot Speak and the accompanying critical essay “Borges and the Golem Paradox: a Rhetoric of Silence?” explore the theme of language and silence. The poetry collection is written in the voice of the imaginary (but published) poet, Gershon Holtz, who reflects my Jewish heritage and upbringing. The poems articulate the silences of those oppressed by war and persecution, and also the silences of meditation and the ineffable, which can reside in the presence, absence, and margins of the poet’s voice. The collection is comprised of two sections: (i) “The Mantelpiece”, which delves into culture, conflict, and memory; and (ii) “The Beautiful Salon”, which reflects upon themes of place, time, loss, and responses to silences represented in visual art and poetry. The critical essay is concerned with the cabalistic figure of the golem—a human being made in an artificial way by magic art, through the use of holy names. Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges (famous for creating fictitious authors and books) wished that, of all his work, the first stanza of his poem “The Golem”, might be remembered. The essay provides a reading that demonstrates how the poem embodies Borges’ views on the nature of signification, language, and knowledge. The paradoxical outcome is that, just as the golem did not have the power of speech, language conceived of as an instrument for textual golem-making is silent in its capacity to represent the world. The essay concludes with some thoughts on my own poetic practice and links the essay with the poetry collection via the figure of the textual golem, Gershon Holtz. This fictional poet becomes a symbol for the problem of language and representation—interpreted both as what we cannot speak about, and the silences inherent in language itself.

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--Litt. comparée--Paris 3, 2000. Titre de soutenance : L'autre, le temps et la mort dans trois fictions du milieu du XXe siècle : "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan", 1941, de J. L. Borges, "Under the volcano", 1947, de Malcolm Lowry, "Le rivage des Syrtes", 1951, de Julien Gracq : la question de la fiction. / Bibliogr. p. 343-358. Index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-219).