Rereading and Rewriting Traditions: The Case of Borges's 'La Casa De Asterión'

Abstract

The article aims to explore ways in which archetypal images of storytelling can be subverted both in the process of writing and reformulating archetypal characters, but also in ways of engaging with these models in the reading process. In the short story 'La casa de Asterión', by the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges, the classical monster known as the Minotaur is re-represented as a sensitive loner whose home, the labyrinth, is as complex a space as the character's mentality. The story ends with the revelation that the first-person narrator is the Minotaur, previously only known by his human name: Asterión. In typical fashion, Borges thus forces his reader to confront the Otherness of the monster as both a distanced human character, and also later, after the revelation, through a traditional perspective. The article therefore explores the objectification of the monster as the abject, drawing on the theories of Julia Kristeva, and the importance of Asterión's mother, the Queen, as a key to his identity. The abjectification of the monster is shown to be connected to his femininity, demonstrating just one way in which Borges twists conventions in both his characterization and his narrative style.