The Problems of Language and Authenticity: Julian Barnes in Dialogue with Borges
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/rl.v0i19.6669Keywords:
Barnes, Borges, hypertext, Platonic connections, reality, reliability.Abstract
The article attempts to make a comparative study of Flaubert’s Parrot (1984) and England, England (1998), two of Julian Barnes’ most celebrated novels, and Jorge Luis Borges’ selected short fiction. Knowing positively that Barnes read Borges, this text will trace the correspondences and (dis) similarities that constitute the echoes of Borges that can be uncovered in Barnes. The main focus will be on the notion of authenticity, its problematization and other subsidiary literary and philosophical obsessions common to both authors, namely the opposition between the archetype and the copy, identity problems and the reliability of memory. Language and its problems will be considered as the thread that binds all these topics together. The method employed will be the analysis of potential intertextuality regardless of biographical or contextual aspects.Downloads
References
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