Date Published:

Abstract:

This article reads Borges’s essays on Zeno’s paradoxes through the lens of pataphysics — the “science of imaginary solutions” — to reinterpret his hybrid mode of reasoning that blends disciplines, as well as reason with unreason, order with chaos, and seriousness with humor. Drawing on Alfred Jarry’s concept of pataphysics and Christian Bök’s pataphysical reappropriation of Gaston Bachelard’s “surrationalism,” I argue that Borges’s texts embody a form of pataphysics: a paradox-embracing, jocoserious reflection that challenges rationalism by exploring the “crevices of unreason” — exceptions that disrupt logic from within. Borges offers a playful yet rigorous framework for thought, suited to the contradictions and uncertainties of postnormal times.

March 2026: 

Zofia Grzesiak is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Iberian and Ibero-American Studies at the University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on Latin American literature, comparative literature, and literary theory, with particular attention to the intersections of science, literature, and philosophy. These interests shaped her project “Borges and Pataphysics” (National Science Centre, Poland, 2019/33/N/HS2/01704).

Her recent work includes “Reading As Conversation with the Overarching Blended Author (Or Roberto Bolaño): Joint Attention, Immersion, and Interaction” (LIT), “Ciencia, literatura, tecnología y «La biblioteca de Babel» de Borges: una patafísica para los tiempos posnormales” (Castilla), and “La patafísica en Roque Larraquy: ¿Hacia un desprendimiento epistemológico?” (Pasavento).

She is a founding member of the ELAR: Estudios Literarios Argentinistas research group and serves as supervisor of the Latin American Literature Student Research Group at the University of Warsaw.