This afternoon at 6 PM, Casa América presents in its Miguel de Cervantes Room the book Borges Beyond Orientalism, coordinated by Nesrin Karavar. Free entry until full capacity.
This book represents an important contribution to Borges studies at a time when the fortieth anniversary of his death will be celebrated. It is a book that opens new perspectives on Borges’ relationship with Eastern traditions, particularly with Persian and Arabic literature and philosophy. The volume, composed of articles by international specialists in Borges, constitutes the first publication of a long-term research conducted by the Turkish researcher and coordinator of the book, Nesrin Karavar, initiated in 2016 during her doctoral process at the University of Barcelona.
This work is based on the discovery of three pages of unpublished notes from Borges’ course titled The Mystics of Islam, and focuses, in particular, on the study of the influence of Sufism on Borges. The research also includes an article that María Kodama sent to the book’s coordinator before her passing, as an explicit show of support for this research. The unpublished texts were written in 1954 and offer a valuable window into Borges’ comparative working method between the West and the East.
After some welcoming words from León de la Torre, general director of Casa de América, the event will feature Margarida Castells, researcher and professor at the University of Barcelona; Nesrin Karavar, researcher at the University of Verona, and Julio Crivelli, essayist and president of the Friends of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Buenos Aires Association.