The Quest for God in the Work of Borges

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This book argues that the quest for God, though largely unheeded by the critical canon, was a major and enduring preoccupation for Borges. This is shown through careful analysis both of his essays, with their emphasis on his philosophical-theological explorations, and of the narrative articulations which are his stories. It is in the poetry of his middle and closing years, however, that Borges' search is most manifest, as it is no longer obscured. Spanning different periods of his life, and different literary genres, Borges' work attests to a maturing and evolving quest.
The book reveals Borges' engagement as an active and evolving process and its chronological structure allows the reader to trace his thought over time. Flynn shows that the spiritual component in Borges' writing drives key texts from the 1920s to the 1980s.

Offering an interpretation that unlocks a fuller significance of his work, she shows how Borges' reflections on time and identity are symptomatic of a deeper, spiritual searching which can only be answered by a Divine Absolute.

Reviews

In this lucid and absorbing book, Annette Flynn addresses a subject that has only recently aroused critical interest - Borges's engagement with religious and mystical questions in a search for a spiritual core to existence. Opposing standard views of the Argentine master as a cerebral writer of playful, nihilistic texts, she traces a development from initial explorations of philosophical and theological themes in the essays and stories towards a more intensely personal struggle to find a form of spiritual salvation, as evinced in the later poetry. This is a challenging and perceptive study which deserves the close attention of all serious readers of Borges's work. -- Edwin Williamson, author of Borges: A Life
Annette Flynn's The Quest for God in the Work of Borges was my most amazing book of the year. -- Dr Brendan Purcell * www.irishcatholic.ie (January 2010) *
This provocative, challenging title will raise eyebrows, and controversies, in the academy, where Borges has been generally considered a religious skeptic... Summing up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. -- J. Walker * Choice, April 2010 *

Author Bio

Annette U. Flynn is Lecturer in Spanish and Portuguese at University College Dublin, Ireland.