Editing Jorge Luis Borges (section)

==Influences==
===Modernism===
[[File:Plaque Jorge Luis Borges, 13 rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris 6.jpg|thumb|left|Plaque, 13 rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris]]

Borges was rooted in the [[Literary modernism|Modernism]] predominant in its early years and was influenced by [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.2307/3726707|last=Britton|first=R|date=July 1979|title=History, Myth, and Archetype in Borges's View of Argentina|journal=The Modern Language Review|publisher=Modern Humanities Research Association|volume=74|issue=3|pages=607–16|jstor=3726707}}</ref> Like [[Vladimir Nabokov]] and [[James Joyce]], he combined an interest in his native culture with broader perspectives, also sharing their multilingualism and inventiveness with language. However, while Nabokov and Joyce tended toward progressively larger works, Borges remained a miniaturist. His work progressed ''away'' from what he referred to as "the baroque": his later style is far more transparent and naturalistic than his earlier works. Borges represented the humanist view of media that stressed the social aspect of art driven by emotion. If art represented the tool, then Borges was more interested in how the tool could be used to relate to people.<ref Name="Media"/>

[[Existentialism]] saw its apogee during the years of Borges's greatest artistic production. It has been argued that his choice of topics largely ignored existentialism's central tenets. Critic [[Paul de Man]] notes, "Whatever Borges's existential anxieties may be, they have little in common with Sartre's robustly prosaic view of literature, with the earnestness of Camus' moralism, or with the weighty profundity of German existential thought. Rather, they are the consistent expansion of a purely poetic consciousness to its furthest limits."<ref>de Man, Paul. "A Modern Master", ''Jorge Luis Borges'', Ed. Harold Bloom, New York: Chelsea House Pub, 1986. p. 22.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref>

===Mathematics===
{{main|Borges and mathematics}}
The essay collection ''Borges y la Matemática'' (Borges and Mathematics, 2003) by Argentine mathematician and writer [[Guillermo Martínez (writer)|Guillermo Martínez]] outlines how Borges used concepts from mathematics in his work. Martínez states that Borges had, for example, at least a superficial knowledge of [[set theory]], which he handles with elegance in stories such as "[[The Book of Sand]]".<ref>Martinez, Guillermo (2003) ''Borges y la Matemática'' (Spanish Edition) Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires. {{ISBN|950-23-1296-1}}</ref> Other books such as ''[[The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel]]'' by William Goldbloom Bloch (2008) and ''Unthinking Thinking: Jorge Luis Borges, Mathematics, and the New Physics'' by Floyd Merrell (1991) also explore this relationship.

===Philosophy===
[[Fritz Mauthner]], philosopher of language and author of the ''Wörterbuch der Philosophie'' (''Dictionary of Philosophy''), had an important influence on Borges. Borges always recognized the influence of this German philosopher.<ref>[[Fernando Báez (writer)|Báez, Fernando]] "''[[Fritz Mauthner|Mauthner]] en Borges''" -nº 19 ''Espéculo'' (UCM): [http://www.ucm.es/info/especulo/numero19/borg_mau.html]</ref> According to the literary review ''Sur'', the book was one of the five books most noted and read by Borges. The first time that Borges mentioned Mauthner was in 1928 in his book ''The language of the Argentines'' (El idioma de los argentinos). In a 1962 interview Borges described Mauthner as possessing a fine sense of humor as well as great knowledge and erudition.<ref>Entrevista con Borges publicada en la "''Revista de la Universidad de México"'', vol. 16, nro. 10, México, junio de 1962, pg. 9</ref>

In an interview,<ref>"[[Philosophy and Literature]]", Volume 1, Number 3, Fall 1977, pp. 337–41.</ref> [[Denis Dutton]] asked Borges who were the "philosophers who have influenced your works, in whom you've been the most interested". In reply, Borges named [[George Berkeley|Berkeley]] and [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]]. He was also influenced by [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]], about whom Borges wrote a famous poem.<ref>Borges, Poesía completa, Debolsillo, Penguin, Barcelona 2016, p. 461</ref> It is not without humour that Borges once wrote: "Siempre imaginé que el Paraíso sería algún tipo de biblioteca." ("I always imagined Paradise to be some kind of a library.")<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Blindness |orig-date=Lecture the chapter is based on given in 1977 |title=Selected Non-Fictions |last= Borges |first= Jorge Luis |editor-first=Eliot |editor-last=Wienberger |page=475 |year=1999 |publisher=Penguin Publishing |quote="Little by little I came to realize the strange irony of events. I had always imagined Paradise as a kind of library. Others think of a garden or of a palace. There I was, the center, in a way, of nine hundred thousand books in various languages, but I found I could barely make out the title pages and the spines." |isbn=0-670-84947-2}}</ref>