Memory Forged in Genocide: What Nietzsche Meant for Borges.
This article examines Jorge Luis Borges's critical appropriation of Friedrich Nietzsche through a reading of "Funes el memorioso" (1942). I argue that Nietzsche, specifically his account of forgetting, is an important intertext in the story. Borges critiques Nietzsche's exaltation of forgetting, on...
| Publicado en: | Modern Philology Vol. 123; no. 1; pp. 103 - 126 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Chicago Press
Aug2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=186913885&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 186913885 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00268232 MPH jtl: Modern Philology issn: 00268232 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2025 vid: 123 iid: 1 pid: 415 pub: University of Chicago Press artinfo: ui: 186913885 10.1086/735789 ppf: 103 ppct: 23 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 952KB tig: atl: Memory Forged in Genocide: What Nietzsche Meant for Borges. aug: au: Ortiz, Pedro Hurtado affil: University of California at Berkeley su: Funes el memorioso (Short story) Borges, Jorge Luis, 1899-1986 Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 Philosophers Philosophy in literature Genocide in literature Nationalism in literature sug: subj: Funes el memorioso (Short story) Borges, Jorge Luis, 1899-1986 Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900 Philosophers Philosophy in literature Genocide in literature Nationalism in literature ab: This article examines Jorge Luis Borges's critical appropriation of Friedrich Nietzsche through a reading of "Funes el memorioso" (1942). I argue that Nietzsche, specifically his account of forgetting, is an important intertext in the story. Borges critiques Nietzsche's exaltation of forgetting, on philosophical and political grounds. The story sets up a dynamic whereby the narrator distorts Funes, whom Borges identifies with the Argentine past, specifically with a time prior to the genocidal Conquest of the Desert (1879–85). The narrator's distortion and praise of forgetfulness are ideologically significant, and Borges invites a connection to modes of distortion and repression operative in Nazism and Argentine nationalism. Against a critical consensus that, taking a page from the narrator, holds that Funes cannot think, I show, with recourse to Kant's idea of the intuitive understanding, that Funes does think, just not in a stereotypically human way. This reassessment of Funes's consciousness has important repercussions for the aesthetic debates this story has been enlisted in, which revolve around Borges's own relation to realism and modernism. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Modern Philology is the property of University of Chicago Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Modern Philology holder: University of Chicago Press dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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