SOURCE: “‘Todos queriamos ser heroes de anecdotas triviales’: Words, Action and Anecdote in Borges' Poetry,” in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies,Vol. LXXIV, No. 1, January, 1997, pp. 73–93.

In the following essay, Sanger considers the function of “self-enacting discourse” in Borges's poetry.

In his speech on the topic of arms and letters in Chapters 37 and 38 of the first part of Cervantes' novel, Don Quixote, as a knight errant, naturally upholds the superiority of arms over letters, arguing that the soldier's goal of peace is nobler, and that his life entails greater sacrifices and requires physical, as well as mental, strength. However, when he ends his speech reiterating his desire to ‘hacerme tamoso y conocido por el valor de mi brazo y filos de mi espada’, we are told of the impact his words have had on the barber, the priest and the others assembled at the inn: ‘En los que escuchado...