Borges in the Mind’s Eye

Abstract

The article argues that the influential Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges's declining vision played a central role in his most famous fictions, a fact frequently bypassed by literary critics. Using Borges's own autobiographical statements and writings, the article focuses on how his oncoming blindness shaped and enriched such memorable works as "Funes, the Memorious" and "The South." In the process, the article shows how impaired vision, far from detracting from his career, helped give birth to his formidable literary achievement, even if he himself had a deeply ambivalent attitude toward his disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]