English Studies | Journals | Books and Articles

The IUP Journal of English Studies

Mirrored Zoontologies: Animalia in the Works of Jorge Luis Borges

Article Details

Pub. Date	: Dec, 2023
Product Name	: The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type	: Article
Product Code	: IJES041223
Author Name	: Dhanya Joy and Siby James
Availability	: YES
Subject/Domain	: Arts & Humanities
Download Format	: PDF Format
No. of Pages	: 5

Price

Download

Abstract

Animal studies is a flourishing field of scholarship that focuses on human-animal interactions, representations of those interactions, and their ethical, social and political implications. Nonhuman animals are much more than a binary opposite to human animals. The animals that figure in literary works are quite often sidelined in our critical studies. This paper delves deep into the treatment of animals in the Borgesean oeuvre. At the outset, the theoretical framework is formulated, and the textual politics of animals in the works of Borges is analyzed in the ensuing part. The paper is predicated on the premise that Borges imparts complex philosophical ideas by recounting the animalia in his works.

Introduction

Any literary discussion that hinges on the exegesis of posthumanism gravitates towards the thought experiments of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. His speculative fiction has almost foreseen the foray of posthuman condition, cyber literature and even the very idea of the Internet. "The Garden of Forking Paths," "The Library of Babel," and "Funes the Memorious" are some of Borges' short stories that testify to this fact. However, his works are seldom analyzed from the perspective of animal studies, a corollary of posthumanism. According to posthumanist terminology, animals are described as nonhuman animals. This modification in nomenclature emphasizes the perception of human beings as human animals. Posthumanists view nonhuman elements, including animals, as part of human selves and societies.