Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2022
Abstract
The study offers an interpretation of Borges and Cortázar in the light of romantic irony, in particular perhaps the earliest formulation of Friedriech Schlegels concept from the Atheneum fragment 37 where irony is defined as an art of controlled enthusiasm. This is something that can be found in Borges, at the level of language, in the figure of litotes, in his penchant for brevity and a relative disdain for novels.
In Cortázar, the taming of enthusiasm manifests itself more openly, as a contrast of two alternating modes of speech. Thus, Borges and Cortázar embody two answers to the question of enthusiasm.