Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote

“Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” serves as a parody of the form of literary criticism, with Borges leaning into the dense and intertextual nature of the form. In doing this, Borges employs a very specific voice, one which is dry, intelligent, authoritative, and opinionated.

When discussing the inspiration for Menard embarking on this project, the critic writes that he took inspiration from “one of those parasitic books that set Christ on a boulevard,” which the critic justifies by writing, “[l]ike every man of taste, Menard abominated those pointless travesties” (Paragraph 24). Rather than remaining neutral on the artistic qualities of those books, the critic gives the reader his direct opinion. By using specific arguments, justifications, and less-formal language, the critic can be characterized to the reader purely through the way he speaks rather than what he says, making the voice a very important rhetorical tool in the writer’s kit.

A distinctive aspect of “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” is the dense and allusive nature of the text. In analyzing Menard, the critic consistently relates his work in contrast to the work and interpretations of other writers, most of whom are real scholars.

The richly intertextual nature of this story serves to contrast it from works more firmly in the Modernist tradition. Modernist works are typically self-contained and do not frequently refer to works outside of themselves; “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” demonstrates its transitional nature from Modernism to Postmodernism through its rejection of the concept of isolated art, due to both the paradoxes central to it, as well as the constant allusions to the wider world of literary analysis. This reinforces the story’s perspective on its theme of Finding Meaning in Literature.