Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1939

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Summary

Background

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Translation

One of the primary motifs of “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” is that of translation. Many of the works that the critic lists in Menard’s catalog have to do with interpreting and translating works by other authors. Menard’s Don Quixote can also be considered a type of translation, but instead of interpreting the words of the original Don Quixote into another language, Menard is translating the composition of the work itself into another historical context.

If Menard’s Don Quixote is a type of translation, then we can also extend the critic’s conclusions about it to other types of translation, such as between languages. Translation, in the critic’s analysis, is always dependent on context: Just as the critic took context into account when developing his analysis of Menard’s Don Quixote, a language translator has to take context into account for their own work. This reinforces the centrality of historical context to the interpretation of literature.

Palimpsest

A palimpsest is a page of a text in which the original words have been removed in preparation for the page’s reuse as another document. Typically, the faded words of the original text can still be seen faintly in a palimpsest, underneath the replacement text. Toward the end of “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” the critic compares Menard’s Don Quixote to a palimpsest, writing that “the traces—faint but not undecipherable—of our friend’s ‘previous’ text must shine through” (Paragraph 42). He then speculates on the existence of another Menard, who might be able to create a new text out of Menard’s recreation.

This comparison can be viewed as a symbol for the text’s unusual compositional process. Despite Menard’s efforts to produce a finished Don Quixote completely independently, the ghost of the original text must still shine through. The comparison between the two of them that the critic delves into therefore demonstrates how comparing two texts, even if they are identical, can create meaning for a reader.

Mimicry

A fundamental interest in the original Don Quixote is that of mimicry, which also extends to “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote.” Don Quixote, in the original work, is mimicking his interpretation of how a knight-errant might behave. In the same vein, Menard starts off his compositional process by mimicking the life of Cervantes. Although he eventually rejects this method and decides to pursue it another way, the work that he produces is still an act of mimicry, despite the independence with which he wrote it.

The intertextuality of the work also reflects the motif of mimicry. All of the various references, allusions, and critiques serve to recreate the literary landscape that Menard and the critic are responding to. The form of the story itself is also a type of mimicry: Borges composed this piece as a parody of the form of literary criticism, which serves to mimic, but also critique, the form itself.