Apprehension and signification in “Funes, the memorious”, by Jorge Luis Borges

Abstract

The text that constitutes the object of analysis of this article is Funes, the memorious, a short story originally published in 1942, by well-known argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. It has been chosen due to the fascinating and astonishing figure of its protagonist, Ireneo Funes, subject whose perception and memory allow him to perceive and remember absolutely everything. However, the most striking feature of this short story, and also the aspect that motivated this study, is the fact that the prodigious perception and the amazing memory of Funes, despite any expectation, don’t make him a genius. Instead, he becomes paralyzed by the phenomena that surround him, denies language and dies. According to notions developed by the Paris School of Semiotics such as apprehension, signification, stase and aesthetization, and some theoretical concepts provided by phenomenology, especially by Husserl, we examine this narrative focusing on how Funes apprehends and signifies the ‘reality’ around him. Moreover, as we approach this text using the tools offered by the Greimasian semiotic theory and keeping some Husserl’s phenomenology notions in mind, we seek to discuss how a perception becomes language in order to better comprehend the nature of the bond between apprehension and signification and also between memory and language