Precis for Final Project

April 2, 1996

I am still very much interested in exploring two of Borges' short stories: "The Lottery of Babel" and the "The Library of Babel." First, I plan to scan the text of these short stories into my home page. I would like to footnote all the esoteric references and allusions made in these texts (or at least as many of them as I can). Second, I would like to explore some of the larger issues which these two stories concerns themselves with. One of the ways that I plan to do this is to situate Borges in the historical moment in which he created. I am interested in examining the ways in which he deconstructs the modernist tradition and the assumptions undergirding it. Lastly, when rereading these short stories at this point in the semester, I am profoundly amazed at the numerous re conceptualizations of Borges' work that I identify in the other authors we have read, especially Pavic and Delany. I would be interested in exploring some of the links between these authors. For example, when rereading the Circular Ruins, it was impossible for me not to make a connection between Khazar's dream hunters (who try to reconstruct the original Adam) and the old sage who dreams his son into existence. Similarly, the analogous between the narrator of "The Library of Babel" and Delany's Gorgik are striking.

At this point, I am not entirely sure that I will be able to do all that I have set out to do. That is, I want to extensively footnote these texts as well as to situate Borges in the literary canon which he drastically reinvisions. Having done so, I hope to be able to explore some of the resonances which I have identified in some of the subsequent authors that we have read in this class.