Following the exploration of Borges's personality and sexuality, I consider here whether it is possible and logical to attempt a biographical reading of his works, while also proposing ways of reading desire and sex in the literature of a reticent writer like him.

Life in Literature

Speaking about his own literature, Borges said, “I’ve never created a character. It's always me, subtly disguised … I’m always myself, the same self in different times or places, but always, irreparably, incurably, myself,” which suggests that his personal circumstances could be brought to bear on the reading of some of his work. He also pointed out that “all that is personal to me, all that my friends good-naturedly tolerate in me—my likes and dislikes, my hobbies, my habits—are to be found in my verse,” thus similarly insinuating that his poetry could be read in a biographical key.

One of Borges's earliest declarations of literary principles was, precisely, that “toda literatura es autobiográfica, finalmente” and that “toda poesía es plena confesión de un yo, de un carácter.” Sometimes readers may have difficulties in accepting this premise or seeing this principle operating in literature, he acknowledged, because of the rhetorical challenges faced by the author or the context in which the biographical material has been placed: “A veces la sustancia autobiográfica, la personal, está desaparecida por los accidentes que la encarnan,” yet the author's life experience, Borges thought, is the deeper substratum that ultimately shapes literature: “es como corazón que late en la hondura.”

Borges's explications of his own texts showed that this principle often guided his literary creation. Take “Junio, 1968.” The poem tells about the silent happiness that a blind man feels when placing his beloved books on the shelves of his bookcase, and, although the character in the poem is unnamed, it is easy to recognize the author in it. Indeed, Borges said that the “poem is altogether autobiographical” and explained that “the whole point of the poem is that strange happiness I felt, although I was blind, of going back [in June of 1968, after a long trip] to my own books and putting them on the shelves.”

So there is no question that Borges's poetry and literature can (and sometimes should) be read as biographical, addressing his sexuality and love life.