Depicting borgesian possible worlds

Abstract

The main purpose of this essay is to show that the philosophical concept of a possible world is part of the Borgesian fiction: in particular, it can be found in the story The Garden of Forking Paths. The main thesis that I will try to defend is the following one: possible worlds are part of the narrative content of the two stories thereby involved, the main one and the novel embedded in it, namely, the book-labyrinth owed to Tsui-Pen; moreover, the concept of a possible world is used in the main story to explain the meaning of the novel. In this sense, it can be taken to play an explanatory role that is similar to the one it plays in semantic theories, and more specifically, in those that appeal to possible worlds in their account of fictional discourse. Finally, the analysis of the use of the possible world concept will enable me to put forward a hypothesis about the conception of the relation between metaphysics and fantastic literature held by Borges.