Abstract

Like the Kafka of one of his essays, Jorge Luis Borges imposes himself at first as a man of iconoclastic singularity, as a writer who, having considered and discarded seemingly all the «isms» of literature and philosophy, creates a world ex nihilo. Yet minutely studied, Borges, like Kafka, who under close scrutiny reveals subtle affinities with other literatures, exhibits an unmistakable existential strain. The analysis of Borges' existentialism, identifiable in his prose works not as an unitary system but as a philosophical premise, together with the dynamics of surprise, constitute the object of the present study.