Medieval Studies Book Club – Collected Fictions

Thu, 3/26 · 4:30 pm—6:00 pm · 209 Scheide Caldwell

Program in Medieval Studies
book cover

The Medieval Studies Book Club’s last meeting of the year will take place on Thursday, March 26 at 4:30pm in Scheide Caldwell House 209.

We will be discussing Jorge Luis Borges’s Collected Fictions. Borges (1899-1986), one of the most important Spanish-language writers of the 20th century and considered a major influence on a range of genres, from philosophy to fantasy, has also long been a favorite of medievalists. An amateur medievalist himself, Borges has explored and re-imagined the worlds of medieval Iberia, Northern Europe, and the Middle East in some of his most famous stories. Historians across specializations have in turn found the imagery of Borges’s stories to be useful metaphors to illustrate historical problems. This month, the Medieval Book Club joins this endeavor.This meeting is the final one of the year and will be open not only to students but also to postdocs and faculty. We would be honored if you would join us.

Please sign up here by March 19. Copies are available to pick up from Anna D’Elia in 206 Scheide Caldwell.

In particular, we will focus on the following stories within the Collected Fictions:

  • Hakim, the Masked Dyer of Merv
  • Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
  • The Approach to al-Mu’tasim
  • Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
  • The Circular Ruins
  • The Library of Babel
  • The Immortal
  • The Theologians
  • The House of Asterion
  • Averroës’ Search
  • The Zahir
  • Ibn al-Ḥakam al-Bokhari, Murdered in His Labyrinth
  • The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths
  • The Aleph
  • Dreamtigers
  • A Dialog About a Dialog
  • Argumentum Ornithologicum
  • On Exactitude and Science

(My thanks to Jesse Noilly for helping to compile this list.)

This meeting is for Princeton University students and faculty only. 

 

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