SOURCE: “The Queer Use of Women in Borges' ‘El Muerto’ and ‘La Intrusa,’” in Hispanofila, Vol. 125, January, 1999, pp. 37–50.

In the following essay originally published in 1995, Brant argues that the relationship between male characters in two of Borges's stories is defined by a repressed homoeroticism.

Sex and women are two very problematic components in the fiction of Jorge Luis Borges: the absence of these two elements, which seems so casual and unremarkable, really highlights the strangeness of their exclusion. For example, scenes of sexual acts are almost totally lacking in Borgesian writing (Emma Zunz's sexual encounter with an anonymous sailor is the most notable exception) and even the most veiled suggestion of erotic activities is limited to only a very few stories. Similarly scarce, too, are female characters who figure prominently in the narration and who seem to possess an independent personhood. The fictional world created by Borges is...