Center for Interpretive and Qualitative Research
(CIQR -- "seeker")*

NOVEMBER 15 (TH), 2001

PRESENTATION: PROFESSOR MARK FRISCH DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE

TITLE: YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO GET THERE FROM HERE: RECONSIDERING BORGES AND THE POSTMODERN

ABSTRACT: Jorge Luis Borges has often been mentioned as a precursor of postmodernity or one of the first of the postmodernists. Critics have focused on Borges' role as a writer who has challenged the singular totalizing view and the monist, modernist positions. Often, he has been interpreted as a radical relativist who subverts the traditional Enlightenment vision. This occurs, I believe, because of his role as a precursor of postmodernity, as the one who initially challenged the pillars that supported modernism. I take issue with that association with radical relativism, however. From our present cultural vantage point, we are able to read and understand Borges differently. Postmodern scholarship in general has begun moving away from its most radical elements in search of limits and boundaries. I illustrate how Borges stakes out a pluralist position between monism and chaos or absolute relativism, and thus provides an important blueprint in that search for positive knowledge.

Minutes

MINUTES of Meetings on Nov 15, 2001 and Nov. 29 2001: On Nov. 15, PROFESSOR MARK FRISCH, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, gave a presentation entitled, "You Might Be Able to Get There from Here: Reconsidering Borges and the Postmodern."