Borges and Joyce
An Infinite Conversation

Patricia Novillo-Corvalán

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Studies In Comparative Literature 24

Legenda

4 February 2011  •  204pp

ISBN: 978-1-907625-05-3 (hardback)  •  RRP £80, $110, €95

ISBN: 978-1-351193-15-3 (Taylor & Francis ebook)

ModernSpanishFiction

Borges and Joyce stand as two of the most revolutionary writers of the twentieth-century. Both are renowned for their polyglot abilities, prodigious memories, cyclical conception of time, labyrinthine creations, and for their shared condition as European émigrés and blind bards of Dublin and Buenos Aires. Yet at the same time, Borges and Joyce differ in relation to the central aesthetic of their creative projects: the epic scale of the Irishman contrasts with the compressed fictions of the Argentine. In this comprehensive and   engaging study, Patricia Novillo-Corvalán demonstrates that Borges created a version of Joyce refracted through the prism of his art, thus encapsulating the colossal magnitude of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake within the confines of a nutshell. Separate chapters triangulate Borges and Joyce with the canonical legacy of Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare using as a point of departure Walter Benjamin's notion of the afterlife of a text. This ambitious, interdisciplinary study offers a model for Comparative Literature in the twenty-first century.

Patricia Novillo-Corvalán is Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the   University of Kent.

Reviews:

  • ‘Deftly employs cultural, geographical, biographical, linguistic and literary analysis; in doing so, it provides readers with a better understanding of Joyce, Borges, and the connections between them.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 49.2 (2013)
  • ‘...The engaging central thesis, of the surprisingly fruitful interaction between these two seemingly dissimilar authors.’ — Ben Bolig, Modern Language Review 108.3, 2013, 983-85 (full text online)
  • ‘This is an ambitious and satisfying book that illuminates, through the prism of Borges, the work of Joyce and, through Joyce, the work of Borges... It is a very welcome and important addition to our libraries.’ — Lucia Boldrini, James Joyce Quarterly 49.3/4, May 2014, 689-92

Bibliography entry:

Novillo-Corvalán, Patricia, Borges and Joyce: An Infinite Conversation, Studies In Comparative Literature, 24 (Legenda, 2011)

First footnote reference: 35 Patricia Novillo-Corvalán, Borges and Joyce: An Infinite Conversation, Studies In Comparative Literature, 24 (Legenda, 2011), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Novillo-Corvalán, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Novillo-Corvalán, Patricia. 2011. Borges and Joyce: An Infinite Conversation, Studies In Comparative Literature, 24 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Novillo-Corvalán 2011: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Novillo-Corvalán 2011: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

This Legenda title was first published by Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing but rights to it are now held by Modern Humanities Research Association and Routledge.

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Permanent link to this title:

www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Borges-Joyce
www.mhra.org.uk/publications/sicl-24