Violence, Time, and Truth in Borges’s literary labyrinths

Abstract

This is an essay on violence. Along these pages, I will outline my concerns about thecharacteristics that arise from the non-elective coexistence of human multiplicity today.To do this, I will use an unorthodox strategy of taking readings from the Argentinewriter Jorge Luis Borges who, along with Martin Plot (2023, 2012), I consider aphilosopher-by-other-means. Borges used commentary and analysis of politicalconjuncture with philosophical essays and fiction in a deliberately ambiguous manner.Accordingly, I will focus on the analysis of three Borges stories: The house of Asterion,The garden of forking paths, and Death and the compass. These stories reflect Borges´profound interest in addressing the intersection of people, worldviews and cultures in aglobalized world. Moreover, Borges´ disgust with totalitarianism and racism,particularly the ideology of Nazism, led him to speak emphatically in political terms.The texts produced by the author are susceptible to being read as both fiction and essay.