Another Cervantes in Borges: the invisible chapters of Pierre Menard

Abstract

In more than ninety of his works, Borges refers to Cervantes directly, and, in numerous others, he implicitly alludes to the father of the modern novel. Focusing on “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”, this essay analyzes, on the one hand, the games of self-representation hidden in Pierre Menard's visible works, and, on the other hand, Menard's (and therefore, Borges's) decision to attempt to reproduce chapters IX, XXII, and XXXVIII of the first part of Don Quixote. It is argued that these chapters possess particular significance, not only for Cervantes's novel but also for Borges's own literary project as well as for that of his fictional author. Lastly, three of Borges' most Cervantine short stories, “Death and the Compass”, “The South”, and “The Congress”, are briefly discussed.