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Society for Latin American Studies

Borges ou l'AutreAuthor(s): B. J. McGuirkSource: Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 1, No. 2 (May, 1982), pp. 105-107Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of Society for Latin American StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3338544Accessed: 31/03/2010 11:28

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Borgesou l'AutreB. J. McGUIRK

Universityof Nottingham

Borgesdoes not exist. A groupof writers,led by Bioy Casares,is jointly respons-ible for his work and the notorious Argentinianhimself has been played allthese years by a second-rateItalian actor. So ran the rumourin Pariswhen thedaily Liberation reported on the 1981 InternationalBorges ColloquiumatCerisy-la-Salle.After Romain Gary's suicide revelation that Emile Ajar, theprize-winningnovelist, was none other than his pseudonym,the Parisianhoundswere obviously keen to sniff out a literaryhoax. To Englisheyes the news-worthinessof such an item might seem bewildering.Indeed,some months ago,when I wrote to a leadingBritishBorgesspecialistof theforthcomingcolloquium,he expressed the view that the French had little new to say on Borgesand'besides, they're a funny lot'. In retrospect the lack of Britishand, more sur-prisinglystill, of North Americanparticipants,was unusualenough for Cerisybut also speaksvolumes on the respective receptions of Borges'swork in twoworlds often seen to be at odds in his writingitself, the Anglo-Saxonand theLatin.The Cerisy gatherings,ten-day sessions in a lovely Normanchateau, havebecome something of an institution in France and are generallypublishedinthe 10/18 series, an attractiveformula of paper followed by discussionon avariety of writers from Bachelardto Bataille, from Jules Verne to VirginiaWoolf. Wide-rangingas the subjectshave been, it is perhapsin the areaof thenouveauromanand, more recently, la nouvellecritique, that Cerisyhas evokedmost interest. In this respect,the figureof JeanRicardouhas servedas a rallyingpoint and, consequently, it was no surprisethat the Borgescolloquium wasdominatedby the Ricardoupresence.Moreaccurately,it is even possiblethatthe colloquium'stitle, 'Borgesoul'autre',wasanironicanticipationof Ricardou'srole. Or, giventhe voluble presenceof the master'scoterie, that a new andveryBorgesianrumourmight soon emerge,namely, that Ricardoudoes not himselfexist, but is a creation of the young Belgiannovelist Benoft Peeters,revealedto the world by the precociousFrenchcritic MarcAvelot,just as Borgeshimselfwas discovered,in the early 1950s, by RogerCaillois.It was undoubtedly the naive belief not only in the existence of the octo-genarianBorgesbut in his influence on severalareasof literaturethat broughtthe majorityof people to Cerisy.Somemayhavefelt disappointedthat Borges'shandling of philosophy, his sense of humour, his love of mystery, illusion,literary games and, especially, his delight in (and subversionof) the detectivemode, were topics rendered well-nigh taboo in the pursuitof a narrowerifundoubtedlyvalidobjective. In a paperentitled 'Bien faire et laisserdire',JeanRicardou'sadmittedlybrilliantreductionof Borges's'dire'in favourof his 'faire',a complex model elaboratedfromthe alreadydifficultdistinctionsof speech-act

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BULLETINOF MATINAMERICANRESEARCHtheory, exploited the tendency to self-reflexiveness,self-parodyand pastichein Borges'swritingin order to situate it as 'un texte domine par ses propresdispositifs'.Thosefamiliarwith Ricardou'slucid analysisof the nouveauromanwill realizewhy he finds in Borgesan archexample,not to say a precursorofhis dictumon the self-consciousnessof novel writing:'composerun roman...ce n'est pas avoirl'idee d'une histoire, puis la disposer;c'est avoirl'id6ed'undispositif, puis en d6duireune histoire'.I believeit is impoverishing,however,to regardBorges'sstoriesonly as the manipulationof theseso-called'dispositifs'.Afterall, the theoryof the constantlyself-referringfiction ishardlynew and it isa pity to treat Borgesvirtuallyas a nouveau romancierjust because,as JohnSturrockhas pointedout inPaperTigers,'he,like they, believesit is the dutyofany particularfiction to illustratethe methodsof the genreasa whole'.

Takingbut two of Borges'srecurrentconcerns,the book and the labyrinth,the benefits of the Ricardouapproachmay none the less be shown. To searchfor the meaningof eitheror both in Borges'swork focuses attentionon expres-sion ('dire'), coincidingwith the numerousBorgesiancharacterswho pursuefutilely and, often, fatally, either a 'deciphering'or a 'centre'.Yet, in TheGardenof ForkingPaths, for instance, the book and the labyrinthare shownto be one and the same, not in what they might be consideredto expressincommon (their 'dire'),but rather in their function ('faire').They are rescuedfrom the nothingnessof their 'dire'by their 'faire',that is, theirgeneratinginthe reader an awarenessof the endlessmeaningspotentialin a givenform, beit a labyrinth,a book or, indeed,anyconventionof signs.Thisfunctionempha-sizes not only the chance natureof ever-changingreference,but also that thesilenceof Borges'sbook-labyrinthmay be seen as active('faire')not as absence('un diresilent').This demonstrationin itself servesas reminderof Mallarmeanechoes in Borgesand suggeststhat Borges'spracticemay cast light on (or bea readingof) the poetics of Mallarme.Namely, it expressesthe idea that allwritingsare ficciones; that all writing invites analysisof its function ratherthanof its truth.

Unfortunately,becauseof the rigorousnouveauromanperspective,the poeticrhythm of Borges'swritingwas as neglectedat Cerisyas it has been elsewhere.Wheneverthe question did arise,it was alas,in the context of literaryhistory,a dull or dismissivereminderof his earlycontact with 'Ultraism',that late andshort-livedrevampingoflmagist preoccupations.In vaindidone seek a relevantrelatingof Borges'spoetry to the short stories and essayswhich accountforhisinternationalfame. The point is that the metaphorsand,aboveall, the rhythmwhich characterizethe stories, may be found, too, in the poems. Insteadofdiscussion of Borges's own poetry, participantswere treated to a series ofglosses, translationsinto Frenchand, irrelevantly,the Borges-inspiredtexts ofothers. For this, the responsibilitymust be attributedto Gerardde Cortanze,directorof the colloquiumandmentorof its dilettantewaywardness.If the Frenchvintagewas a predictablemixture of closed-shopmethodologyand misplacedlyricism, the Argentinianbrew was, so to speak,a stale-mate.Negative, the amiably nostalgic and patriotic ramblingof the writer AliciaDujovne-Ortiz;positive, the presenceof Hugo Santiago,the film-maker.Thecinemahas long been a sourceof borrowingsfor Borgesand,with Bioy Casaresin particular,he has collaborated,too, in writingseveralfilm-scripts.At Cerisy,

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