Major Issues
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Major Issues

Literary historians have traced the influence of Jorge Luis Borges in two related directions: first on the development of 20th century Latin American literature; second on the development of 20th century international postmodernism. For the former, Borges is credited with altering the course of Latin American fiction from narrow social realism to imaginative universal fantasy. He also pioneered the shift in focus from the external to the internal worlds of fictional characters. For the latter, no critical discussion of the history of postmodernism proceeds without examining the essential role of Borges. Scholars observe that both his major themes, such as the permeability of the boundary between illusion and reality, and his structural innovations, such as dismissing the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, embody the tenants of postmodernism. Borges’ assumption of and challenging engagement with active, intellectual readers is another much admired—and imitated—feature of his writing.

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