Borges, Dante, and the Poetics of Total Vision

Abstract

R EADERS AND CRITICS of Borges's The (El Aleph, 1945) have long recognized the Dante allusions, some subtle, some obvious, woven into the text of this intricate, famous tale. In various unmistakable ways Borges alludes to Dante Alighieri, to Beatrice, and to elements of the Commedia. Even so, he never refers directly to Dante or the Commedia, in spite of the fact that in The he cites numerous precursors.' Furthermore, in his 1970 Aleph commentary Borges virtually denied that the allusions to Dante were intentional: