Professor Borges: A Course on English LiteratureIn English at last, Borges’s erudite and entertaining lectures on English literature from Beowulf to Oscar Wilde Writing for Harper’s Magazine, Edgardo Krebs describes Professor Borges:“A compilation of the twenty-five lectures Borges gave in 1966 at the University of Buenos Aires, where he taught English literature. Starting with the Vikings’ kennings and Beowulf and ending with Stevenson and Oscar Wilde, the book traverses a landscape of ‘precursors,’cross-cultural borrowings, and genres of expression, all connected by Borges into a vast interpretive web. This is the most surprising and useful of Borges’s works to have appeared posthumously.”Borges takes us on a startling, idiosyncratic, fresh, and highly opinionated tour of English literature, weaving together countless cultural traditions of the last three thousand years. Borges’s lectures — delivered extempore by a man of extraordinary erudition — bring the canon to remarkably vivid life. Now translated into English for the first time, these lectures are accompanied by extensive and informative notes by the Borges scholars Martín Arias and Martín Hadis. |
Contents
| 12 | |
The Battle of Maldon Christian poetry | 35 |
The two hooks written by God The AngloSaxon bestiary | 57 |
A brief history until the eighteenth century The life | 71 |
Samuel johnson as seen by Boswell The art ofbiography | 88 |
Life of William Wordsworth The Prelude and other | 108 |
Coleridges final years Coleridge compared to Dante | 127 |
Life of Thomas Carlyle Sartor Resartus by Carlyle | 148 |
The life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti Evaluation of Rossetti | 180 |
Rossetti s poem Rossetti as seen by Max Nordau The | 191 |
The life of William Morris The three subjects worthy | 212 |
The Tune of the Seven Towers The Sailing of | 224 |
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung by William Morris | 236 |
New Arabian | 244 |
Epilogue | 252 |
The life ofRobert Browning The obscurity of his work | 164 |
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Common terms and phrases
alliteration ancient Anglo-Saxon battle Battle of Brunanburh Battle of Maldon beginning believed Beowulf Blake Borges Borges’s Boswell Browning Browning’s called Carlyle century character Chaucer Chesterton Christ Coleridge Coleridge’s Dante death Dickens dragon dream elegies England epic poem epic poetry everything example famous feel Finnsburh French friends Germanic happened heart’s desire heaven Hengest Hildeburh imagine Johnson king king of Norway Kubla Khan language later Latin Leibniz literary literature lived London look Macpherson metaphors Middle Ages Morris Morris’s never night Norse Norsemen Norwegian novel Old English painting Paradise poet poetry prince prose published Rasselas remember romantic Rossetti Samuel Johnson Saxon says Scotland Shakespeare ship Sigurd speaks spoke stanzas Stevenson story strange Sword talk Tall Troy’s tells There’s things thought titled told translated Troy Town Troy’s on fire verse Vikings Walt Whitman woman words Wordsworth write written wrote