Poulson, Nancy Kason

Borges’s literary production, particularly between 1923 and 1955, drastically changes in its depiction of Buenos Aires. The city that Borges considered his home was the center of various political and cultural changes in Argentina during those years, and the more that Argentina changed, the deeper Borges’s disillusionment became.
Examining these changes in the depiction of themes such as city, community, and history, we can better understand the process of disillusionment by which Borges begins with a utopic view of Buenos Aires that becomes dystopic before it is abandoned in order to imagine a new utopia.

This dissertation comparatively analyzes the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, a nineteenth century American, and Jorge Luis Borges, a twentieth-century Argentinian, within the context of human rights. Through their writings, both Emerson and Borges provided a voice to the voiceless by addressing the most egregious violations of human rights during their respective days: For Emerson, the most virulent social ill was slavery; for Borges, it was fascism. While Emerson and Borges differ in several ways, they are remarkably similar in their emphasis of natural laws and natural rights, notably egalitarianism and liberty, which underpin humanity and comprise an integral aspect of civilization. By counteracting the antithesis of civilization, barbarism, the works of Emerson and Borges ultimately embody the tenets that would ultimately constitute The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thus, Emerson and Borges are indelibly linked through serving as harbingers of human rights.