Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones [Fictions]

Mark O'Connell (Trinity College Dublin)

Ed. by Ben Bollig, University of Oxford
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 5.1.1: Hispanic Writing and Culture of South America.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Ben Bollig (University of Oxford), Ceire Broderick (University College Cork), Nuala Finnegan (University College Cork), Anna Forné (Gothenburg University), Cara Levey (University College Cork), Thomas Nulley-Valdés (Australian National University), Carolina Orloff (Independent Scholar - Europe), Ailsa Peate (University of Westminster)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1944

Places

Argentina (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Metafiction
Story Collection

Resources

Ficciones (Fictions) is a book by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, published in 1944. It is composed of two distinct sections, The Garden of Forking Paths and Artifices. The former was published in 1941 as a stand-alone collection of eight short stories, and republished with the latter under the title Ficciones in 1944. With The Aleph (1949), it is one of the twin pillars upholding Borges’ reputation as one of the greatest literary artists of the twentieth century.

The stories are remarkable for their formal innovations, and in particular for the shape-shifting fashion in which they are made to conform to the outer appearance of particular genres and styles—the essay, the book review, the detective story, the fantastic tale, the parable—thereby complicating the distinctions between reality and fantasy and between literary fiction and other modes...

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2851 words

Citation: O'Connell, Mark. "Ficciones". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 April 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14413, accessed 09 June 2026.]

Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones [Fictions]

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

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