Literature with Chléo

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Jorge Luis Borges Fictions

Fictions is a collection of short stories published in 1944, by the Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges. This short stories are know for their fantasy, but Borges renews the genre creating what he calls "philosophy-fiction".

Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote

One of my favorite short stories is "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote". You can read the English version here :


It is the life sketch and the work of the imaginary writer Pierre Menard, a french writer in the 30's, who tries to rewrite the Cervantes' Quixote.

This short story is a literary criticism, that raises the questions of authorship, appropriation and  interpretation. First of all, the title of the novel seems very provocative, and full of sense, indeed, the word "author" comes from the Latin word "augere" (increase), so here Menard increases the sense, he adds a layer to the text.  
Also, Borges launches the idea that the author is not essential anymore, the reader replaces him. The reader becomes creator of a new meaning. This idea was already present in Proust's work with the questioning of the necessity to connect the text to the author's life and historical context to understand, appreciate it. And this idea was later theorized by Barthes in his essays :The Death of the Author. Menard is an author, but he is first of all a reader. 
The text that Menard writes is an identical rewriting at all points of the Cervantes' text. This creates an extreme appropriation that turns comical. But at the same time Menard, an author from the XXth century brings to his writing his cultural, literary, philosophical heritage that the piece of the XVIth century didn't have. For example, as the narrator says, in Menard's version there is an irrefutable influence of Nietzsche in the 38th chapter. Also, the reading of the same text changes according to the times. We can see that in the quote "truth, whose mother is history, who is the rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, example and lesson to the present, and warning to the future.”, when Menard writes that history has become a science and gives the text a whole new meaning.


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