Veiled images: presence and omission of the subject personal pronoun and its signification in the text “Borges y yo”, by Jorge Luis Borges

Abstract

Based on the materiality of language, the present paper deals with the effects of sense that spring from the presence and absence of the first person subject personal pronoun in the singular form in a text by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, “Borges e eu”. The omission and presence of the “I” in the text show specific effects particular to the Spanish language in relation to the use of subject personal pronouns, and to the establishing of a comparison/contrast between those who take part in the discourse. The discursive identity of the individual and his/her “textual relation” to the other allow one to challenge the concept of the subject as the central and only being in the discourse, and show that the notion of subjectivity in not simply centered on the “I”, but, in addition to that, incorporates the other as a constitutive element of the subject