24 pages • 48 minutes read
The Aleph
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Literary Devices
Autofiction
Borges writes himself into “The Aleph,” even granting his fictional counterpart a published work called The Sharper’s Cards inspired by the author’s real-life volume of unpublished writings drafted early in his career. As with much of his work, “The Aleph” blends elements of various genres such as mystery, science fiction, and fantasy. Yet Borges often contrasts these elements with deliberate realism, often going so far as to include himself or historical events in the narration so that his writing often seems to be a nonfiction account of a parallel universe. The narrator is not identified as Borges until his final visit to Argentino, meaning he is nameless for most of the story.
Allusion
Borges’s writing is full of allusions to historical events and literary works that often enrich the meaning of his works. For example, a story from the collection titled, The House of Asterion is written from the perspective of the minotaur in Greek mythology. Argentino credits himself with including in one stanza “three erudite allusions spanning thirty centuries of dense literature: first the Odyssey, second the Works and Days, and third that immortal bagatelle that regales us with the diversions of the Savoyard’s plume” (121). The various allusions Argentino puts forth are grandiose comparisons that, when considered alongside his actual work, reveal his delusional arrogance.
Direct Address
Borges uses several strategies to render infinite space in ordinary prose in a way that is convincing and engrossing. Before his description of the Aleph, he writes, “I come now to the ineffable center of my tale; it is here that a writer’s hopelessness begins” (129). He then groups diverse phenomena with the effect of shrinking the space between them. Borges’s direct statement to the reader of the impossibility of this task is more than modesty; it is a way of inspiring a vast, sublime sense of scale in the minds of readers. Borges breaks the invisible wall between the reader and the story by drawing attention to the act of writing the text. In doing so, Borges creates the illusion of the Aleph’s power being so great that it momentarily bursts the confines of the narrative. For a moment, Borges (both author and narrator) and the reader look into each other’s eyes before turning to look at the Aleph.
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By Jorge Luis Borges
