Kate Jenckes – författare

A fresh look at how Borges's most celebrated stories critique various forms of sovereignty, from philosophical ideals of mastery to historical instances of fascism.Jorge Luis Borges was one of the principal writers of the twentieth century to bring literature to bear on the relationship between the political and the philosophical. Although often regarded as a master of the abstract and universal, his fiction is equally concerned with the singular—with the unique, odd, and contingent. Kate Jenckes revisits Borges's most well-known stories with fresh eyes, revealing their persistent preoccupation with singularity, understood at base as that which exceeds sovereignty. Borges Between Singularity and Sovereignty explores Borges’s portrayal of the limits of sovereignty in a range of registers, from stylized depictions of imperialism and fascism to the structure of subjectivity with its dependence on perception, memory, and language. Through the cracks in different ideals of sovereignty emerges a mode of relation that Borges reluctantly calls the aesthetic, which serves to name a non-sovereign approach to the singularities of life and historicity.

A fresh look at how Borges's most celebrated stories critique various forms of sovereignty, from philosophical ideals of mastery to historical instances of fascism.Jorge Luis Borges was one of the principal writers of the twentieth century to bring literature to bear on the relationship between the political and the philosophical. Although often regarded as a master of the abstract and universal, his fiction is equally concerned with the singular—with the unique, odd, and contingent. Kate Jenckes revisits Borges's most well-known stories with fresh eyes, revealing their persistent preoccupation with singularity, understood at base as that which exceeds sovereignty. Borges Between Singularity and Sovereignty explores Borges’s portrayal of the limits of sovereignty in a range of registers, from stylized depictions of imperialism and fascism to the structure of subjectivity with its dependence on perception, memory, and language. Through the cracks in different ideals of sovereignty emerges a mode of relation that Borges reluctantly calls the aesthetic, which serves to name a non-sovereign approach to the singularities of life and historicity.

Together with original readings of some of Benjamin's finest essays, this book examines a series of Borges's works as allegories of Argentine modernity.This book explores the relationship between time, life, and history in the work of Jorge Luis Borges and examines his work in relation to his contemporary, Walter Benjamin. By focusing on texts from the margins of the Borges canon-including the early poems on Buenos Aires, his biography of Argentina's minstrel poet Evaristo Carriego, the stories and translations from A Universal History of Infamy, as well as some of his renowned stories and essays-Kate Jenckes argues that Borges's writing performs an allegorical representation of history. Interspersed among the readings of Borges are careful and original readings of some of Benjamin's finest essays on the relationship between life, language, and history. Reading Borges in relationship to Benjamin draws out ethical and political implications from Borges's works that have been largely overlooked by his critics.

Together with original readings of some of Benjamin's finest essays, this book examines a series of Borges's works as allegories of Argentine modernity.This book explores the relationship between time, life, and history in the work of Jorge Luis Borges and examines his work in relation to his contemporary, Walter Benjamin. By focusing on texts from the margins of the Borges canon-including the early poems on Buenos Aires, his biography of Argentina's minstrel poet Evaristo Carriego, the stories and translations from A Universal History of Infamy, as well as some of his renowned stories and essays-Kate Jenckes argues that Borges's writing performs an allegorical representation of history. Interspersed among the readings of Borges are careful and original readings of some of Benjamin's finest essays on the relationship between life, language, and history. Reading Borges in relationship to Benjamin draws out ethical and political implications from Borges's works that have been largely overlooked by his critics.

Provides an innovative and theoretically rigorous approach to the subject of testimony in Latin America.This book rethinks the nature of testimony beyond the ground of the human in works produced in Chile and Argentina from the 1970s to the present. Focusing on literature by Juan Gelman, Sergio Chejfec, and Roberto Bolaño, as well as art by Eugenio Dittborn, Kate Jenckes argues that these works represent life, death, and the relation between self and other "beyond the human," that is beyond the sense that we can know and represent ourselves and others, with powerful implications for our understanding of history, community, and politics. Jenckes engages with the work of Jacques Derrida together with the intellectually rigorous field of Chilean aesthetic theory to explore issues related to the nature of testimony.