SOURCE: “Borges: Cultural Iconoclast, Dissident Creator of Semantic Traps,” in West Virginia University Philological Papers, Vol. 44, 1998-99, pp. 104-11.

In the following essay, Stiehm argues that Borges criticizes established cultural values through manipulation of the common meaning of words.

I. Borges in History

Borges is less a case of history in literature than one of literature in history. It is true that Borges's family had a long story of involvement in some of the most stirring Latin American military events; and that Borges commemorated his family's military heroes in poetry. It is true also that Borges spoke publicly against the Perón regime, and was at first kept from working because of it, but later earned his position as Director of the Argentine National Library partly as a result of that opposition to Perón. In his statements in these regards, he has said that he kept literature...