- ホーム
- > 洋書
- > 英文書
- > Literary Criticism
Full Description
Recorded during Jorge Luis Borges's final years, this second volume of his conversations with Osvaldo Ferrari provides a wide-ranging reflection on the life and work of Argentina's master writer and favorite conversationalist.
In Conversations: Volume 2, Borges and Ferrari engage in a dialogue that is both improvisational and frequently humorous as they touch on subjects as diverse as epic poetry, detective fiction, Buddhism, and the moon landing. With his signature wit, Borges offers insight into the philosophical basis of his stories and poems, his fascination with religious mysticism, and the idea of life as a dream. He also dwells on more personal themes, including the influence of his mother and father on his intellectual development, his friendships, and living with blindness. These recollections are alive to the passage of history, whether in the changing landscape of Buenos Aires or a succession of political conflicts, leading Borges to contemplate what he describes as his "South American destiny."
The recurrent theme of these conversations, however, is a life lived through books. Borges draws on the resources of a mental library that embraces world literature—ancient and modern. He recalls the works that were a constant presence in his memory and maps his changing attitudes to a highly personal canon. In the prologue to the volume, Borges celebrates dialogue and the transmission of culture across time and place. These conversations are a testimony to the supple ways that Borges explored his own relation to numerous traditions.
Contents
Prologue by Forge Luis Borges
Prologue by Osvaldo Ferrai
Socrates
On the United States
The Cult of Books
Argentina's Past, Present and Future
On Philosophy
On Borges' Mother, Leonor Acevedo Suárez
Prologues
Flaubert
On Uruguay
Poetic Intelligence
Almafuerte
Buddhism
'Epic Flavour'
Virginia Woolf, Victoria Ocampo and Feminism
The Conspirators
Teaching
Bertrand Russell
The 'Conjectural Poem'
New Dialogue on Poetry
The Moon Landing
Russian Writers
Spinoza
New Dialogue on Alonso Quijano
Celtic Culture
Quevedo
The Mystic Swedenborg
Painting
Voltaire
The Nineteenth Century
Virgil
On Friendship
Chesterton
The Book of Heaven and Hell
Lucretius
On France
Mark Twain, Güiraldes and Kipling
'Buddha and Personality'
Irish Literature
Góngora
The Poets of New England
On Metaphor
Edgar Allan Poe
Paul Groussac
Shakespeare
New Dialogue on The Conspirators
