The book “Borges Beyond Orientalism,” coordinated by Nesrin Karavar, will be launched on June 22nd. The event will take place at 6:00 PM in the Miguel de Cervantes Room at Casa de América (Plaza de la Cibeles s/n, Madrid). Admission is free until capacity is reached.
This book represents an important contribution to Borges studies at a time when the fortieth anniversary of his death is being commemorated. It opens new perspectives on Borges’s relationship with Eastern traditions, particularly with Persian and Arabic literature and philosophy. The volume, composed of articles by international Borges specialists, is the first publication of a long-term research project undertaken by the Turkish researcher and book coordinator, Nesrin Karavar, which began in 2016 during her doctoral studies at the University of Barcelona.
This work stems from the discovery of three pages of previously unpublished notes from Borges’s course, titled “The Mystics of Islam,” and focuses, in particular, on the study of Sufism’s influence on Borges. The research also includes an article that María Kodama sent to the book’s coordinator before her death, as an explicit demonstration of her support for this investigation. The unpublished texts were written in 1954 and offer a valuable insight into Borges’s comparative approach to studying the West and the East.
Welcome:
– León de la Torre, Director General of Casa de América.
Participants:
– Margarida Castells, researcher and professor at the University of Barcelona.
– Nesrin Karavar, researcher at the University of Verona.
– Julio Crivelli, essayist and president of the Friends of the National Museum of Fine Arts Association of Buenos Aires.