“El Sur” Jorge Luis Borges PDF

Preview

Summary

Class notes on El Sur by Jorge Luis Borges in English...

Description

“El Sur” Resumen Juan Dahlmann is an obscure secretary in an Argentine library. Although of German descent, he is proud of his Argentine maternal ancestors: his military grandfather had died fighting the aboriginals in the wild Pampas. "pierced by the Indians of Catriel", a romantic end that he is fond to consider. He has a number of mementos from his forefather: an old sword, a lithograph photo, and a small e  state in southern Argentina he has never found time to visit. In February 1939, he obtains a copy of Weil's Arabian Nights . He takes the book home, and—eager to examine it—rushes up the stairs and gashes his forehead against a loose jamb. The wound Dahlmann suffers forces him to lie bedridden with a very high fever. After a few days of perplexing and horrifying discomfort, his doctors move him to the hospital, where instead of improving, the treatment for his injury causes him greater suffering, causing him to feel humiliation and self-hatred, almost as though he were in hell. (It warrants noting at this point that, in the Prologue for Artifices , Borges explicitly acknowledged the possibility of an alternative interpretation of the narrative, while refraining from giving any details or hints with respect to its nature. He writes, "Of 'The South,' which is perhaps my best story, let it suffice for me to suggest that it can be read as a direct narrative of novelistic events, and also in another way." With this in mind, one may well reinterpret the story in such manner that all that follows Dahlmann's darkest moments in the hospital is a narration of his idealized death—the one Juan Dahlmann fabricates and enacts in his feverish mind, whilst upon the verge of a pathetic demise in the hospital he never left, in order to regain a measure of honor, self-respect, transcendence in his last moments of consciousness.) After days in the hospital, he is suddenly told that he is recovering, after almost having died of sepsis. Juan Dahlmann sets off to his estate in the South to convalesce. Riding a taxi at dawn to the train station, Dahlmann regards the awakening city sights with great joy. Having to wait 30' for his departure, he decides to have a bite at a famous cafe near the train station. In the locale, he notices a c at, the mythical creature who, in many cultures (for example, Egypt), is associated with eternity and the gods. After his meal, Dahlmann boards the train and rides out of the city into the plains of the South. He begins to read Arabian Nights  but then closes the book to enjoy the scenery. The train conductor enters his compartment and notifies him that the train will not be stopping at his destination, but at a previous station. Once the train reaches the deserted station, Dahlmann steps off into nearly empty fields. He makes his way through the darkened roads to the only watering hole (a typical a  lmacén de campo ) outside of which he notices Gaucho's horses. He sits down, orders food, and begins to read Arabian Nights . Three p  eones  or rough farm hands sitting at a table nearby throw a bread crumb at him, which he ignores. However, after a short while, they begin again. Dahlmann stands up in order to exit the establishment. The shopkeeper (calling him by name) anxiously asks Dahlmann to pay them no heed, saying they are drunk. This prompts Dahlmann to do the opposite, to face them. One of the thoughts or compadritos  brandishes a knife. Seeing the situation getting out of hand, the shopkeeper calls out that Dahlmann does not even have a weapon. At this point, an old man in the corner, a

gaucho (which to Dahlmann represents the essence of the South, as well as of the romantic past) throws a dagger to Dahlmann. It lands at his feet. As he picks up the dagger, Dahlmann realizes that this means he will have to fight, and that he is doomed; he has never wielded a knife in his life and is sure to die in the encounter. However, he feels that his death in a k nife fight is honorable, that it is the one he would have chosen when he was sick in the hospital, and he decides to have a go. The narrative switches from past to present tense in the story's final sentence, when Dahlmann and the toughs exit the bar and walk into the endless plain for their confrontation....