Macedonio Fernndez: Between Literature, Philosophy, and the Avant-Garde

At Macedonio Fernndezs funeral in 1952, Jorge Luis Borges delivered the following elegy: In those years I imitated him to the point of transcription, to the point of devout and passionate plagiarism. I felt: Macedonio is metaphysics, Macedonio is literature. This is the first book available in English that collects essays by the worlds leading scholars on Macedonio Fernndez, one of Borgess most important mentors and a still enigmatic thinker of the early 20th century. Macedonio's philosophy, metaphysics, ethics, and experimental writing laid the foundations for Borgess own theoretical and literary matrix. Nonetheless, Borges helped shape a myth of Macedonio as a thinker who could not translate his oratorial geniality into written intelligibility. So, despite the centrality of Macedonio to Borgess thought, his work has remained almost unknown to English-speaking readers. Contributors to this volume demonstrate, however, that this myth reduces the complexities of Macedonios life and creative process, as each chapter shines new light on his texts. Conceived as both a companion for new readers of Macedonios writings and an invitation for specialists to revisit his work through new perspectives, essays in this volume provide extensive background and bibliographical references, as well as English translations of Macedonios original texts. This collection seeks to serve as a catalyst for the continued discovery and rediscovery of Macedonio Fernndezs texts and the ways they might help us to rediscover the singularities of our own present moment.