"The books and the night", neurological perspective on Jorge Luis Borges' blindness
Gac. méd. Méx
;
155(5): 516-518, Sep.-Oct. 2019. graf
Artigo
em Inglês
| LILACS
| ID: biblio-1286553
ABSTRACT
The works of Argentinian scholar Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) have captivated physicians. An assiduous reader, he was given, with magnificent irony, "books and the night". Borges suffered from chronic and irreversible blindness, which influenced much of his work and has been the subject of different literary and diagnostic analyses from the ophthalmological point of view. However, the characteristics of his visual impairment have escaped the neurological approach, which is why we reviewed his work looking for data suggesting a concomitant brain injury. On his autobiography, he recounts how, during an episode of septicemia, he suffered hallucinations and loss of speech; in addition, in some poems and essays he describes data that suggest "phantom chromatopsia", a lesion of cortical origin. After that accident, Borges survived with a radical change in literary style. Although a precise diagnosis is impossible, his literary work allows recognizing some elements in favor of concomitant brain involvement.
Texto completo:
DisponíveL
Índice:
LILACS (Américas)
Assunto principal:
Poesia como Assunto
/
Redação
/
Cegueira
/
Pessoas Famosas
/
Lesões Encefálicas Traumáticas
Tipo de estudo:
Estudo de etiologia
País/Região como assunto:
América do Sul
/
Argentina
Idioma:
Inglês
Revista:
Gac. méd. Méx
Assunto da revista:
Medicina
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Artigo
País de afiliação:
México
Instituição/País de afiliação:
Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León/MX
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