‘A Sinful Passion’: Mario Vargas Llosa’s Readings of Borges from 1964 to 2014

• Stefano Rossoni ^[1]
  1. [1] University College London

     University College London

     Reino Unido

     
• Localización: Bulletin of Spanish Studies, ISSN-e 1478-3428, ISSN 1475-3820, Vol. 99, Nº 3, 2022, págs. 477-505
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • 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.