ULRICA AND BORGEAN DETAILS: PORTALS TO SECRET STORIES

Abstract

The following paper analyzes Ulrica (1975), a story published by Jorge Luis Borges in his last years of life. The analysis is based on the method of “detail”, small clues that the author leaves in the story and that leads to “hidden” or “secret” stories. The methodology comes from the literary perspective of Ricardo Piglia, who considers the writer as a criminal who hides his tracks, and the critic as a detective whose purpose is to discover the secret history encrypted in the text. The article offers three alternative reading proposals to Borges’ story: a) the erotic dream of Javier Otálora at the inn in York; b) the cyclical repetition of failed love through intertextuality with classical texts; c) the autobiography of the fatal love of the author Jorge Luis Borges.