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Jorge Luis Borges

ホルヘ・ルイス・ボルヘス

Jorge Luis Borges

Aliases: Jorge Borges / Borges
Pen Names: H. Bustos Domecq（Pseudonym used in collaborations with Adolfo Bioy Casares）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1899-08-24 （Buenos Aires, Argentina）
Died
1986-06-14 （Geneva, Switzerland） age 86
Nationality
Argentine
Languages
Spanish, English, French, German
Religion
Agnosticism
Residence History
Buenos Aires, Argentina → Geneva, Switzerland → Spain (Barcelona, Mallorca, Madrid) → United States (lecture tours and visiting posts)

Career

Occupations
Writer, Poet, Translator, Librarian, Critic, Lecturer
Active Years
1921-1986
Affiliations
National Library of the Argentine Republic (Director), University of Buenos Aires (Professor of English Literature), Argentine Society of Writers (SADE)
Influenced By
Arthur Schopenhauer, George Berkeley, Fritz Mauthner, Guillaume Apollinaire, Walt Whitman
Influenced
Gabriel García Márquez, J. M. Coetzee, David Foster Wallace, William Gibson, Philip K. Dick
Nominations
Nobel Prize in Literature nominee (multiple years)

Education

Collège de Genève
Period: 1914–1918
Year of Graduation: 1918
Country: Switzerland
Received baccalauréat (1918)

Awards

International Formentor Prize (Prix Formentor)
1961
Organization: Formentor / International literary organizers
Result: 受賞（サミュエル・ベケットと共同受賞）
Jerusalem Prize
1971
Organization: Jerusalem International Book Forum
Result: 受賞
Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
1962
Organization: French Ministry of Culture
Result: 受賞
Miguel de Cervantes Prize
1980
Organization: Spanish government / Cervantes Foundation
Result: 受賞
Balzan Prize
1980
Work: Philology, Linguistics and Literary Criticism
Organization: Balzan Foundation
Result: 受賞
Edgar Allan Poe Award (Special Award)
1976
Organization: Mystery Writers of America
Result: 受賞（特別功労）
Legion of Honour
1983
Organization: French government
Result: 受賞
Diamond Konex Award
Organization: Konex Foundation (Argentina)
Result: 受賞（年代別の最重要作家として）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Ficciones

1944 Short story collection

A landmark short-story collection exploring labyrinths, mirrors, libraries and the play of language; strongly philosophical and metafictional.

LabyrinthsMirrorsLibrariesInfinityChanceLanguage and authorship
Adaptations
  • [Film] Days of Hate (Días de odio) / Leopoldo Torre Nilsson (1954)
Translations
  • Multiple English translations exist, including editions translated/edited by Andrew Hurley

El Aleph

1949 Short story collection

Contains the title story in which a point (the Aleph) lets one view the entire universe; collections of stories about memory and infinity.

MemoryInfinityPerception and visionBooks and archives
Translations
  • Numerous translations into English and other languages

The Book of Sand

1975 Short story collection

Collection including the title story about a book with infinitely many pages; contains fables about infinity and books.

InfinityBooksFantastical devices
Translations
  • Many translations into English and other languages

The Garden of Forking Paths

1941 Short story

A story about forking possibilities of time; often seen as a precursor to hypertext thinking.

TimePossible worldsForking choices
Translations
  • One of the earlier stories translated into English that raised Borges's international profile

Bibliography

  • Fervor de Buenos Aires (1923)
  • A Universal History of Infamy (1935)
  • The Garden of Forking Paths (1941)
  • Ficciones (1944)
  • El Aleph (1949)
  • The Book of Imaginary Beings (1967)
  • The Book of Sand (1975)

Adaptations

  • Días de odio (1954) — Film adaptation of 'Emma Zunz' directed by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson
  • Various short stories adapted for film, theatre and opera

Translations by Author

  • Spanish translations of works by William Faulkner (e.g. The Wild Palms) and others

Translations of Works

  • English translations of Ficciones (various)
  • English translations of El Aleph (various)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Concise, dense proseMetafictionPhilosophical and allegorical short fictionErudite, encyclopedic references
Recurring Motifs
LabyrinthsMirrorsBooks and librariesInfinity and mathematicsDreams vs. realityAuthor-work doubleness

Health

  • Progressive vision loss / blindness
    30代から進行、55歳頃に完全失明
    Affected his writing practice; led to greater reliance on memory, dictation, and a shift toward shorter forms and poetry.
  • Liver cancer (cause of death)
    晩年（1986年没）
    Led to his death in 1986.

Legacy

A central figure in Spanish-language and world literature. His metafictional and nonlinear narratives, and motifs of knowledge and libraries, influenced later writers and digital media. Though never awarded the Nobel Prize, he received numerous international honors and retains high critical standing.

Museums

  • Jorge Luis Borges Collection (University of Virginia) United States — University of Virginia (special collections)
  • Borges Center (University of Pittsburgh) United States — University of Pittsburgh (Borges Center)

Academic Societies

  • Argentine Society of Writers (SADE)

Archives

  • University of Virginia: Jorge Luis Borges Collection (manuscripts and correspondence)
  • Borges Center (University of Pittsburgh)

In Popular Culture

  • Influence on film, theatre and music (adaptations and homages)
  • Referenced by contemporary SF and postmodern authors (Gibson, Wallace, etc.)

Quotes

  • I have always imagined that Paradise will be some kind of a library.
    Source: Autobiographical Notes (published in The New Yorker) (1970)
  • God, who with such magnificent irony, at one touch granted me books and the night.
    Source: Poem / quoted in interviews and collections

Trivia

  • Never awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature despite multiple nominations.
  • Became completely blind around age 55 but continued to produce work.
  • At ten, published a Spanish translation of Oscar Wilde's 'The Happy Prince'.
  • Posthumous disputes arose over the management and republication of his works (widow María Kodama).