Objeto mágico: Una categoría de análisis aplicada a tres cuentos de Jorge Luis Borges: “el libro de arena”, “El Aleph y “El Zahir”

Abstract

This monograph conceptualizes and defines a category coined by the writer Jorge Luis Borges called the "magical object," a concept about which there has been a significant theoretical gap in analyses of his literary work to date. This research seeks to fill this gap and demonstrate the importance of this category. The first chapter of this monograph contains the theoretical framework, introducing the writer and characterizing the category of "magical object" (what it is, when it was first used by Borges, and how he employed it in his literature). To this end, the chapter defines what a short story is, what a semiotic object is, what magic is, and what infinity is, weaving together all these concepts to determine the qualities of this category. In the second chapter, the magical object present in each of the stories is traced and characterized in the following order: "The Book of Sand," "The Aleph," and "The Zahir." Subsequently, in the third chapter, the magical objects in the three stories are compared, identifying their commonalities and differences, but primarily studying them from the perspective of Roman Ingarden's phenomenological theory. In that same chapter, conclusions are provided that answer what a magical object is, what implications it has in a story, what its characteristics are, and finally what this category can be used for in literary analyses of the work of the Argentine writer.