Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Borges versus Proust: Towards a Combative Literature

Borges versus Proust: Towards a Combative Literature ANFARE AS THE LIGHTS come up in the arena. In this corner, the challenger: the blind Argentinian librarian, sometime poet, essayist and lecturer, erstwhile poultry inspector, eclectic yet conservative. And in the other corner, the beloved recumbent French champion, weighing in with seven weighty volumes of protracted sentences and winding (perhaps literally breathtaking)1 meditations on the slightest sensations. An unlikely match, it may be soberly remarked, with unlikely combatants. Why should these two authors be in contest with one another, how should they combat, what title is at stake—quite simply, what purpose is served by placing them in opposition? The opposition is actually not just a whim: Borges, in whom we find such impeccable literary knowledge and taste, disliked Proust, that other paragon of cultural refinement. Why this should be so is a question that inspires this essay, a speculation upon a possible antagonism—for, after all, Proust could not be bothered to foresee, let alone fortify against or rebuke in anticipation, his future adversary. Borges and Proust: crudely compared, both are Nobel-lacking mamma’s boys; both might be termed or criticized as (in the manner of Paul Claudel) literary anchorites; both have steered startlingly into and through the maelstrom http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

Borges versus Proust: Towards a Combative Literature

CONLEY, TIM
Comparative Literature , Volume 55 (1) – Jan 1, 2003
Download PDF
15 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/duke-university-press/borges-versus-proust-towards-a-combative-literature-eufOXy3bnL

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2003 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/-55-1-42
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

ANFARE AS THE LIGHTS come up in the arena. In this corner, the challenger: the blind Argentinian librarian, sometime poet, essayist and lecturer, erstwhile poultry inspector, eclectic yet conservative. And in the other corner, the beloved recumbent French champion, weighing in with seven weighty volumes of protracted sentences and winding (perhaps literally breathtaking)1 meditations on the slightest sensations. An unlikely match, it may be soberly remarked, with unlikely combatants. Why should these two authors be in contest with one another, how should they combat, what title is at stake—quite simply, what purpose is served by placing them in opposition? The opposition is actually not just a whim: Borges, in whom we find such impeccable literary knowledge and taste, disliked Proust, that other paragon of cultural refinement. Why this should be so is a question that inspires this essay, a speculation upon a possible antagonism—for, after all, Proust could not be bothered to foresee, let alone fortify against or rebuke in anticipation, his future adversary. Borges and Proust: crudely compared, both are Nobel-lacking mamma’s boys; both might be termed or criticized as (in the manner of Paul Claudel) literary anchorites; both have steered startlingly into and through the maelstrom

Journal

Comparative Literature – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2003

There are no references for this article.