Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He was completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have proposed that his progressive loss of sight influenced his development of innovative literary symbols through imaginative techniques. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
Life and Career
In 1961, Borges came to international attention when he received the first International Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J. M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists." David Foster Wallace wrote: "The truth, briefly stated, is that Borges is arguably the great bridge between modernism and post-modernism in world literature ... His stories are inbent and hermetic, with the oblique terror of a game whose rules are unknown and its stakes everything."
Key Facts
- Born: August 24, 1899 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Died: 1986
- Field: Literature
Legacy and Impact
The influence of Jorge Luis Borges extends far beyond his own lifetime. He fundamentally shaped literature and the written word, and his written works and literary innovations remain foundational to this day.
Though he passed away in 1986, his ideas continue to be studied, debated, and built upon by scholars and practitioners worldwide.
Jorge Luis Borges remains one of the most celebrated minds to emerge from Argentina, a testament to the rich intellectual heritage of the region.
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