Abstract

DE OLIVEIRA CAIXETA, Maryllu. Father Poe and Theories of the Short Story in the Americas: Considerations based on Jorge Luis Borges' Reviews on Edgar Allan Poe. Lit. teor. hist. crit. [online]. 2020, vol.22, n.1, pp.195-217.  Epub Apr 13, 2020. ISSN 0123-5931.  https://doi.org/10.15446/lthc.v22n1.82297.

In some of his reviews dedicated to Poe, Jorge Luis Borges considers him the father of a singular genealogy of modern and avant-garde poetry. Critics and short story writers also consider Poe the father of the short story and of theories of the short story in the Americas. Borges points out that, in comparison to Poe and other writers of fantastic literature in the United States, the Argentine short story shows a tendency toward naive realism. He also highlights different tendencies in the short stories belonging to these literatures, on the basis of Poe's criticisms of Nathaniel Hawthorne's metaphysical allegories. Confirming this critique, Borges asks whether it is possible for an unorthodox rhetorical strategy like allegory to name that which Hawthorne advocates: the singular wholeness of the entirety of the fable's unity. The article carries out a commentary of Borges' reviews of Poe and emphasizes the relevance of a similar naive realism in the history of Brazilian literature.

Keywords : Borges; Poe; theories of the short story in the Americas.

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