“Gradually, the pleasant universe was abandoning him”: “blinding” and cultural mediation in “The Doer”, by Jorge Luis Borges

Abstract

The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) gained worldwide projection from the literary recognition of his work. With vision problems that have accompanied him all his life, he becomes completely blind at around 55, but this event did not determine the end of his artistic production. This study aimed to analyze how the process of “become blind” permeated Borges's work, based on the analysis of the homonymous tale from the book O fazedor, produced in the period of vision loss. The theoretical support adopted in the study was, among others, the theory of cultural transfers by Espagne and Werner (1988). Several marks of the “become blind” process were found in the analyzed text, and it is possible to identify different types of cultural transfers, above all to understand how Borges's lifespan readings arise and are remodeled in his production. Different perceptions regarding the loss of vision could be observed and this may serve as a support, especially for a sighted person, to understand how blindness affects the subject, indicating possible ways to promote accessibility in the social environment that impacts on maximizing the inclusion of people with visual impairment.

Keywords: Jorge Luis Borges; O fazedor; blindness in the literature; “become blind”