The South (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Jorge Luis Borges
- First Published: 1944
- Type of Plot: Magical Realism
- Time of Work: 1939
- Setting: Buenos Aires and the southern plains of Argentina
- Principal Characters: Juan Dahlmann, Three young ruffians, An old gaucho
- Genres: Short fiction, Magical Realism
- Subjects: Mythology or myths, Reality, Death or dying, Imagination, Argentina or Argentineans, Geography
- Locales: Buenos Aires, Argentina
The Story
Juan Dahlmann works in a library in Buenos Aires. Like many Argentines, he is of mixed heritage. His paternal grandfather was a German minister who emigrated to Argentina in 1871. His maternal grandfather was a famous Argentine military man who suffered a violent death at the hands of Indians on the frontier. In spite of Dahlmann's bookish lifestyle, he prefers to think of himself as more closely linked to his military-hero grandfather, “his ancestor of romantic death.” Because of this, Dahlmann keeps some souvenirs that remind him of the more heroic side of his...
[The entire page is 1522 words long]
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