'TLÖN, UQBAR, ORBIS TERTIUS': BETWEEN MYTH AND REALITY, BORGES’ SCIENCE FICTION

Abstract

The present study has as its object of analysis Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (1944), by the Argentinian Jorge Luís Borges, one of the most expressive writers of the speculative literature of Latin America. This short story presents itself as a veritable labyrinth of ideas and divides the opinion of critics regarding its classification within the speculative universe. Genres such as Fantastic Literature, Fantasy Literature and Magic Realism have been the main theoretical bases of analysis of this text around the world. However, the study proposed here aims to frame the short story, not within the limits of the aforementioned genres, but within the Science Fiction genre, which, although part of the broad universe of speculative literature, has its own regiments and figurations. Therefore, we seek to explore concepts and assumptions that support the thesis presented here using critics such as Darko Suvin (2005), Damien Broderick (1995) and James Gunn (2005), among many others. The results point to a close connection between Borges’ Science Fiction and its strong connection with mythological narratives, which would be, in part, one of the main reasons for the difficulty of characterizing the work within a single generic category.