Poetics of the labyrinth in the contemporary tale: from Jorge Luís Borges to David Mourão-Ferreira and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

Abstract

The labyrinth is the structure beneath most of contemporary short stories. A spatial, textual and time labyrinth, usually leading to a knowledge maze that questions even the identity of the characters that dare to enter it. Starting with some paradigmatic stories of Jorge Luis Borges, David Mourão-Ferreira and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, in which a writing of continuous change permanently delays the sense, we will try to show the powerful symbology of a real “poetics of the labyrinth” in modern short stories. The overflowing images of this poetic prose or “narrative poetry” immersed in a fantastic atmosphere leads frequently to a multiplicity and a total inversion of perspective flowing into dizziness and hallucination. The creatures that are immortalized here wander, trying to find themselves in the mystery that involves everything, leading us to the splendour of an unknown universe where the irrefutable beauty of Poetry is the main thread of a powerful quest for meaning.