Reading and Writing ‘a destiempo’: The Figure of the Museum in Borges

SCHWARTZ, JOHN PEDRO

Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (2015), 92, (3), 299–318.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/bhs.2015.19
Language: English
Pages: 20

Abstract

In 1936–1937, Borges published a serial collection of rare and curious literary citations under the title Museo in the magazine Destiempo. The textual museum lifts its quotations ‘out of time’ by removing them from their original texts and contexts. These fragments function as metonyms of world literature. A perennial Argentine question is how to write literature in a peripheral culture that is a destiempo, to pun on the title of the magazine. Borges obviates Argentina’s untimeliness by negating time altogether through the metaphor of the museum. In appropriating, modifying, reinterpreting, and reorganizing fragments of world literature, Museo further demonstrates Borges’ claim that ‘Nuestro patrimonio es el universo’. My intervention remedies the critical neglect of Borges’ use of the museum as a powerful and multifaceted metaphor for exploring time, identity, reality, perception, and language.

En 1936–1937, Borges publicó una colección seriada de citaciones literarias raras y curiosas bajo el titulo de Museo en la revista Destiempo. El Museo textual levanta sus citaciones ‘fuera del tiempo’ sacándolas de sus textos y contextos originales. Estos fragmentos funcionan como metonimias de la literatura mundial. Una pregunta constante en Argentina es cómo escribir literatura en una cultura periférica que está a destiempo. Borges somete a discusión el destiempo Argentino negando el tiempo totalmente a través de la metáfora del Museo. Coleccionando, modifcando, rein-terpretando, y reorganizando fragmentos de la literatura mundial, Museo además demuestra que ‘Nuestro patrimonio es el universo’, como Borges sustentó. Mi inter-vención trata de remediar el crítico abandono del uso borgeano del Museocomo una metáfora poderosa y multifacética para explorar el tiempo, la identidad, la realidad, la percepción, y el lenguaje.

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