Abstract
This article examines the preparatory materials that Borges used to teach courses at the Colegio Libre de Estudios Superiores in Buenos Aires, on Kafka in 1951 and on Flaubert in 1952. Though several well known essays emerged from these courses – “Kafka y sus precursors”, “Flaubert y su destino ejemplar” and “Vindicación de Bouvard et Pécuchet” – the manuscripts reveal far more of Borges's research and thinking about the two authors. Key concepts that he develops in these essays include his unusual (and influential) idea of the “precursor” that is only revealed through reading later works and heterodox ideas about realism and verisimilitude.