Editing Jorge Luis Borges (section)

==Culture and Argentine literature==
===''Martín Fierro'' and Argentine tradition===
{{main|Borges on Martín Fierro}}
Along with other young Argentine writers of his generation, Borges initially rallied around the fictional character of Martín Fierro. ''[[Martín Fierro]]'', a poem by [[José Hernández (writer)|José Hernández]], was a dominant work of 19th-century [[Argentine literature]]. Its eponymous hero became a symbol of Argentine sensibility, untied from European values – a [[gaucho]], free, poor, ''[[pampas]]''-dwelling.<ref Name="Irreverence"/> The character Fierro is illegally drafted to serve at a border fort to defend it against the indigenous population but ultimately deserts to become a ''gaucho matrero'', the Argentine equivalent of a North American western outlaw. Borges contributed keenly to the avant garde [[Martín Fierro (magazine)|''Martín Fierro'' magazine]] in the early 1920s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walker |first=Carlos |date=2011 |title=Jorge Luis Borges: De Martín Fierro a Sur (1924-1935) |url=https://journals.iai.spk-berlin.de/index.php/iberoamericana/article/view/531 |journal=IBEROAMERICANA. América Latina - España - Portugal |language=es |volume=11 |issue=41 |pages=25–42 |doi=10.18441/ibam.11.2011.41.25-42 |issn=2255-520X}}</ref>

As Borges matured, he came to a more nuanced attitude toward the Hernández poem. In his book of essays on the poem, Borges separates his admiration for the aesthetic virtues of the work from his mixed opinion of the moral virtues of its protagonist.<ref>Borges and Guerrero (1953) ''El "Martín Fierro'' {{ISBN|84-206-1933-7}}</ref> In his essay "The Argentine Writer and Tradition" (1951), Borges celebrates how Hernández expresses the Argentine character. In a key scene in the poem, Martín Fierro and El Moreno compete by improvising songs on universal themes such as time, night, and the sea, reflecting the real-world gaucho tradition of ''payadas'', improvised musical dialogues on philosophical themes.<ref Name="Irreverence">Gabriel Waisman, Sergio (2005) ''Borges and Translation: The Irreverence of the Periphery'', Bucknell University Press, pp. 126–29; {{ISBN|0-8387-5592-5}}</ref><ref Name="Argentine">Borges, Jorge Luis and Lanuza, Eduardo González (1961) "The Argentine writer and tradition" Latin American and European Literary Society</ref> Borges points out that Hernández evidently knew the difference between actual gaucho tradition of composing poetry versus the "gauchesque" fashion among Buenos Aires literati.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Queiroz |first=Maria José De |date=1973-09-30 |title=Resenha: BORGES, Jorge Luis. El oro de los tigres. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1968. 168 p. |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.17851/1678-3549.1.1.126-130 |journal=Phasis |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=126 |doi=10.17851/1678-3549.1.1.126-130 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |issn=1678-3549}}</ref>

In his works he refutes the arch-nationalist interpreters of the poem and disdains others, such as critic Eleuterio Tiscornia, for their Europeanising approach. Borges denies that Argentine literature should distinguish itself by limiting itself to "local colour", which he equates with cultural nationalism.<ref Name="Argentine"/> [[Jean Racine|Racine]] and [[Shakespeare]]'s work, he says, looked beyond their countries' borders. Neither, he argues, need the literature be bound to the heritage of old-world Spanish or European tradition. Nor should it define itself by the conscious rejection of its colonial past. He asserts that Argentine writers need to be free to define Argentine literature anew, writing about Argentina and the world from the point of view of those who have inherited the whole of world literature.<ref Name="Argentine"/> Williamson says "Borges's main argument is that the very fact of writing from the margins provides Argentine writers with a special opportunity to innovate without being bound to the canons of the centre,&nbsp;... at once a part of and apart from the centre, which gives them much potential freedom".<ref Name="Irreverence"/>

===Argentine culture===
Borges focused on universal themes, but also composed a substantial body of literature on themes from Argentine folklore and history. His first book, the poetry collection ''Fervor de Buenos Aires'' (''Passion for Buenos Aires''), appeared in 1923. Borges's writings on things Argentine include Argentine culture ("History of the Tango"; "Inscriptions on Horse Wagons"), folklore ("Juan Muraña", "Night of the Gifts"), literature ("The Argentine Writer and Tradition", "Almafuerte"; "[[Evaristo Carriego]]"), and national concerns ("Celebration of the Monster", "Hurry, Hurry", "The Mountebank", "Pedro Salvadores"). Ultranationalists, however, continued to question his Argentine identity.<ref Name="Butterflies"/> Borges's interest in Argentine themes reflects in part the inspiration of his family tree. Borges had an English paternal grandmother who, around 1870, married the ''criollo'' Francisco Borges, a man with a military command and a historic role in the [[Argentine Civil Wars]] in what are now Argentina and [[Uruguay]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Borges, Francisco |url=https://www.borges.pitt.edu/i/borges-francisco |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=Borges Center at the University of Pittsburgh}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Zunini |first=Patricio |date=2019-12-27 |title=Francisco Borges, el abuelo del gran escritor: un héroe atrapado entre dos lealtades |url=https://www.infobae.com/grandes-libros/2019/12/27/francisco-borges-el-abuelo-del-gran-escritor-un-heroe-atrapado-entre-dos-lealtades/ |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=Infobae |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodall |first=James |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/35792375 |title=Borges : a life |date=1996 |publisher=BasicBooks |isbn=0-465-04361-5 |edition=1st U.S. |location=New York |oclc=35792375}}</ref>

Spurred by pride in his family's heritage, Borges often used those civil wars as settings in fiction and quasi-fiction (for example, "The Life of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz", "The Dead Man", "Avelino Arredondo") as well as poetry ("General Quiroga Rides to His Death in a Carriage"). Borges's maternal great-grandfather, [[Manuel Isidoro Suárez]], was another military hero, whom Borges immortalized in the poem "A Page to Commemorate Colonel Suárez, Victor at Junín".
<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rodriguez Monegal |first1=Emir |title=Borges, the Reader |journal=Diacritics |date=Winter 1974 |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=44–45 |doi=10.2307/465123|jstor=465123 }}</ref>
His nonfiction explores many of the themes found in his fiction. Essays such as "The History of the [[Tango (dance)|Tango]]" or his writings on the epic poem "[[Martín Fierro]]" explore Argentine themes, such as the identity of the Argentine people and of various Argentine subcultures. The varying genealogies of characters, settings, and themes in his stories, such as "La muerte y la brújula", used Argentine models without pandering to his readers or framing Argentine culture as "exotic".<ref Name="Butterflies"/>

In fact, contrary to what is usually supposed, the geographies found in his fictions often do not correspond to those of real-world Argentina.<ref>David Boruchoff (1985), "In Pursuit of the Detective Genre: 'La muerte y la brújula' of Jorge Luis Borges", ''Inti: Revista de Literatura Hispánica'' no. 21, pp. 13–26.</ref> In his essay "El escritor argentino y la tradición", Borges notes that the very absence of camels in the [[Qur'an]] was proof enough that it was an [[Arabs|Arabian]] work, despite the fact that camels are mentioned in the Qur'an. He suggested that only someone trying to write an "Arab" work would purposefully include a camel.<ref Name="Butterflies">Takolander, Maria, (2007) ''Catching butterflies: bringing magical realism to ground'' Peter Lang Pub Inc pp. 55–60; {{ISBN|3-03911-193-0}}</ref> He uses this example to illustrate how his dialogue with universal existential concerns was just as Argentine as writing about gauchos and tangos.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}} Borges detested [[Association football|football]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Barrera |first=Daniela |date=2021-08-24 |title=Las mejores frases antifutboleras de Jorge Luis Borges |url=https://us.as.com/us/2021/08/24/tikitakas/1629839757_110577.html |access-date=2024-09-02 |website=Diario AS |language=es-us}}</ref>

===Multicultural influences===
At the time of the [[Argentine Declaration of Independence]] in 1816, the population was predominantly ''[[Criollo people|criollo]]'' (of Spanish ancestry). From the mid-1850s on, waves of immigration from Europe, especially Italy and Spain, arrived in the country, and in the following decades the Argentine national identity diversified.<ref Name="LRB"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1990/1/90.01.06.x.html|last1=Velez |first1=Wanda |date=1990 |title=South American Immigration: Argentina |publisher=Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute |work=The Autobiographical Mode in Latin American Literature |series=Volume I |access-date=24 August 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906012123/http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1990/1/90.01.06.x.html |archive-date= Sep 6, 2011 }}</ref> Borges was writing in a strongly European literary context, immersed in Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, [[Old English language|Anglo-Saxon]] and [[Old Norse language|Old Norse]] literature. He also read translations of Near Eastern and Far Eastern works. Borges's writing is also informed by scholarship of [[Christianity]], Buddhism, [[Islam]], and [[Judaism]], including prominent religious figures, heretics, and mystics.<ref Name="Fiction">[http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exbelbor.html Bell-Villada, Gene, ''Borges and His Fiction: A Guide to His Mind and Art''], University of Texas Press; {{ISBN|978-0-292-70878-5}}.</ref> Religion and heresy are explored in such stories as "[[Averroes's Search]]", "[[The Writing of the God]]", "[[The Theologians]]", and "[[Three Versions of Judas]]". The curious inversion of mainstream Christian concepts of [[Redemption (theology)|redemption]] in the last story is characteristic of Borges's approach to theology in his literature.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Jorge Luis Borges|last=Stabb|first=Martin S.|publisher=Twayne Publishers, Inc.|year=1970|location=New York|pages=99–100}}</ref> In describing himself, Borges said, "I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities that I have visited, all my ancestors."<ref name="profile">[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/10/jorgeluisborges Jorge Luis Borges profile], guardian.co.uk, 22 July 2008; accessed 15 August 2010.</ref> As a young man, he visited the frontier ''[[pampas]]'' which extend beyond Argentina into [[Uruguay]] and [[Brazil]]. Borges said that his father wished him "to become a citizen of the world, a great cosmopolitan," in the way of [[Henry James|Henry]] and [[William James]].{{sfn|Williamson|2004|p=53}}

Borges lived and studied in Switzerland and Spain as a young student. As Borges matured, he traveled through Argentina as a lecturer and, internationally, as a visiting professor; he continued to tour the world as he grew older, finally settling in [[Geneva]], where he had spent some of his youth. Drawing on the influence of many times and places, Borges's work belittled nationalism and racism.<ref name="Butterflies" /> However, Borges also scorned his own [[Basques|Basque]] ancestry and criticised the abolition of [[slavery]] in America because he believed black people were happier remaining uneducated and without freedom.<ref>(in Spanish) Rodolfo Braceli (1996) "Borges", in: ''Caras, Caritas y Caretas''. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana. {{ISBN|0-7910-7872-8}}.</ref> Portraits of diverse coexisting cultures characteristic of Argentina are especially pronounced in the book ''Six Problems for don Isidoro Parodi'' (co-authored with Bioy Casares) and ''[[Death and the Compass]]''. Borges wrote that he considered Mexican writer [[Alfonso Reyes]] to be "the best prose-writer in the Spanish language of any time."<ref>Borges, ''Siete Noches'', p. 156</ref> Borges was also an admirer of Asian culture, e.g. the ancient Chinese board game of [[Go (game)|Go]], about which he penned some verses,<ref>{{cite web|title=El Go|url=http://gobase.org/reading/stories/?id=12|publisher=GoBase|access-date=26 August 2011}}</ref> while "[[The Garden of Forking Paths]]" had a strong Chinese theme.