Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote

Jorge Luis Borges wrote "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote."

Image: Mushki Brichta, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote

Jorge Luis Borges wrote "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote."

"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" is a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. It was first published in Spanish in the Argentine journal Sur in May 1939. The story explores the concept of rewriting a classic work word for word, but with a different meaning.

Example

In the story, Pierre Menard attempts to rewrite Don Quixote word for word, but his version conveys a completely different meaning.

Borges's story challenges the notion of originality and the relationship between author, text, and meaning.

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