'A Sinful Passion': Mario Vargas Llosa's Readings of Borges from 1964 to 2014. Issue 3 (16th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rossoni, Stefano
• Is Part Of: Bulletin of Spanish studies. Volume 99:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 477
• Page End: 505
• Publication Date: 2022-03-16
• Subjects: Jorge Luis Borges -- Mario Vargas Llosa -- Reception -- Literature -- Politics -- Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto -- Deicide -- Novel -- Liberalism; Spanish philology -- Periodicals; Portuguese philology -- Periodicals; Spanish literature -- Periodicals; Portuguese literature -- Periodicals; Spain -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Latin America -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Portugal -- Civilization -- Periodicals; 860.5
• DOI: 10.1080/14753820.2022.2067294
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1475-3820

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines Vargas Llosa's fifty-year-long conflicted fascination for Jorge Luis Borges. The young and leftist Vargas Llosa disregarded Borges as the embodiment of a disengaged intellectual, while the mature Vargas Llosa celebrates him as the emblem of cosmopolitanism that should inspire globalized societies today. Focusing on different stages of Vargas Llosa's intellectual biography, I examine how his interpretations of Borges are informed by readings of Jean-Paul Sartre, Gabriel García Márquez and Miguel de Cervantes. Considering the intersections of political engagement and literary theories, I study how Vargas Llosa incorporates Borges' intellectualism into his fiction and imbues it with eroticism.