Entre De Quincey y Borges : metodología crítica en literaturas comparadas

Abstract

Tres palabras -influencia, recepción e historia- rigen el movimiento de este ensayo. Su fin es proponer como la crítica de esos enfoques, al enfrentarnos a la necesidad de resolver sus problemas específicos, en el marco de un estudio de literaturas comparadas, genera una serie fecunda de desplazamientos metodológicos. Cuando la crítica pone al descubierto un deficit, el enfoque de ia influencia debe pedir auxilio al de la recepción, y este, por su parte, al de la historia. La historia exige, a su vez, que una reflexión metahistórica la salve del abismo de su autoconocimiento. El ensayo busca contribuir asi al campo metodológico de las literaturas comparadas. Las observaciones surgen de un proyecto de investigación concreto sobre la relación entre De Quincey y Borges y resultan funcionales a su desarrollo.

Three words -influence, reception and history- pace the movement of this essay, its aim is to suggest that criticism of these approaches creates a productive series of methodological displacements by pushing us to solve their specific problems in the frame of a study in comparative literature. When criticism points out an epistemological deficiency in the influence approach, it becomes a necessity to ask for help to the reception approach, and the latter one, being the object of a new critic, will have to resort, eventually, to the historical approach. But history is not an end in itself, since it demands a meta-historical reflection, which could prevent it from falling into the abysm of its own self-knowledge. This essay wants to contribute to the methodological field of comparative literature. However, its observations arise from a particular research project that deals with the relationship between De Quincey and Borges, and are congenial to its development.