Borges and the Third Man: Toward an Interpretation of ‘Unánime noche’ in “The Circular Ruins”

In Alfonso J. García-Osuna (ed.), Borges, Language and Reality: The Transcendence of the Word. Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 15-32 (2018)
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Abstract

I aim to show how the enigmatic phrase 'Unánime noche' in the famous first sentence of “The Circular Ruins” is inextricably linked to the story’s last words. Toward this purpose, I argue—against plausible foundational interpretations of the story—for a nonfoundational reading of the text and, moreover, that Borges’s use of ‘unánime’ (one soul) can be understood as one character or one form; namely, as an archetype of “Dreamanity” that leads to a vertiginous Third Man regress.

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José Luis Fernández
Fairfield University

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