Jorge Luis Borges Recorded Norton Poetry Lectures In 1967 – 68

cjmarshall | Book reviews and writers | May 8, 2012

Jorge Luis Borges was a literary giant of Latin American literature and poetry and has had a profound influence on many writers over the last 60 odd years. His works contributed to the genre of science fiction and more particularily magic realism and, as one of my favourite writers, J. M. Coetzee said of him:

He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish American novelists.

Now, thanks to UbuWeb, you can not only read Borges, but hear him as well. They offer MP3s of Borges’ complete Norton Lectures, which the writer gave at Harvard University in the Autumn of 1967 and Spring of 1968:

• Introduction
• The Riddle of Poetry
• The Metaphor (part 1)
• The Metaphor (part 2)
• The Telling of the Tale
• Word-Music, and Translation
• Thought and Poetry (Part 1)
• Thought and Poetry (part 2)
• A Poet’s Creed

 At the time he was nearly 70 years old and totally blind but, nonetheless, gaves a wide-ranging series of talks, freely reaching across forms, countries, eras and languages without the aid of notes. Entitled ‘The Craft of Verse’, these lectures deal predominatly with poetry however, even if you’re not a lover of the form, you will enjoy these talks on everything from storytelling to human communication, the shortcomings of the novel to the falseness of the happy ending.

Via Open Culture