The Quest For God In The Work Of Borges

The first book to highlight the spiritual element in Borges' work, this work offers an insightful and scholarly interpretation of a fundamental facet of his writing.This book argues that the quest for God, though largely unheeded by the critical canon, was a major and enduring preoccupation for Borges.

This is shown through careful analysis both of his essays, with their emphasis on his philosophical-theological explorations, and of the narrative articulations which are his stories. It is in the poetry of his middle and closing years, however, that Borges' search is most manifest, as it is no longer obscured.

Spanning different periods of his life, and different literary genres, Borges' work attests to a maturing and evolving quest.The book reveals Borges' engagement as an active and evolving process and its chronological structure allows the reader to trace his thought over time. Flynn shows that the spiritual component in Borges' writing drives key texts from the 1920s to the 1980s.Offering an interpretation that unlocks a fuller significance of his work, she shows how Borges' reflections on time and identity are symptomatic of a deeper, spiritual searching which can only be answered by a Divine Absolute.

Review: In this lucid and absorbing book, Annette Flynn addresses a subject that has only recently aroused critical interest - Borges's engagement with religious and mystical questions in a search for a spiritual core to existence. Opposing standard views of the Argentine master as a cerebral writer of playful, nihilistic texts, she traces a development from initial explorations of philosophical and theological themes in the essays and stories towards a more intensely personal struggle to find a form of spiritual salvation, as evinced in the later poetry.

This is a challenging and perceptive study which deserves the close attention of all serious readers of Borges's work. - Edwin Williamson, author of Borges: A Life