Borges and the construction of “reality”

Fernando De Toro

doi:10.1515/sem-2013-0032

Article

Borges and the construction of “reality”

Fernando De Toro
Fernando De Toro (b. 1950) is a full professor at the University of Manitoba 〈fernando.detoro@ad.umanitoba.ca〉. His research interests include postmodernism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, and post-feminism. His publications include Intersecciones: Ensayos sobre teatro. Antropología, Semiótica, Teatro Latinoamericano, Post-Modernismo, Post-Colonialismo, y Feminismo (1999); New intersections: Essays on culture and literature in the post-modern and post-colonial condition (2002); Semiótica del Teatro: Del Texto a la Puesta en escena (4th edn., 2008); and Interseccitions III: Globalización y cultura: Ensayos sobre arquitectura, cultura, pintura, música y literature (2011).

Published/Copyright: June 7, 2013

Published by

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

Submit Manuscript Author Information Explore this Subject

From the journal Semiotica Volume 2013 Issue 195

Abstract

In “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” Borges challenges the veracity of any discourses that presents itself as Truth, particularly pertaining to master narratives such as philosophy and History, and engages in a deconstruction of these narratives. In order to this, Borges introduces a number of strategies: a) the cancellation of the difference between fiction and reality, b) the creation of a world based on a marginal comment in his own narration, and c) the circulation and dissemination of discourse that pretends to have an ontological reality. In what follows we will examine these three strategies which Borges uses to construct the truth of Tlön.

Keywords: poststructuralism; metafiction; simulation; rhizomaticity; post-modernity; deconstruction

University of Manitoba

About the author

Fernando De Toro

Fernando De Toro (b. 1950) is a full professor at the University of Manitoba 〈fernando.detoro@ad.umanitoba.ca〉. His research interests include postmodernism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, and post-feminism. His publications include Intersecciones: Ensayos sobre teatro. Antropología, Semiótica, Teatro Latinoamericano, Post-Modernismo, Post-Colonialismo, y Feminismo (1999); New intersections: Essays on culture and literature in the post-modern and post-colonial condition (2002); Semiótica del Teatro: Del Texto a la Puesta en escena (4th edn., 2008); and Interseccitions III: Globalización y cultura: Ensayos sobre arquitectura, cultura, pintura, música y literature (2011).

Published Online: 2013-06-07

Published in Print: 2013-06-06

You are currently not able to access this content.

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2013-0032

Keywords for this article

poststructuralism; metafiction; simulation; rhizomaticity; post-modernity; deconstruction