Shakespeare's Memory: Memory in Borges's Last Fiction.

This article analyzes the theme and functions of memory in Jorge Luis Borges’s last full-length fiction, “La memoria de Shakespeare” (“Shakespeare’s Memory”), focusing on its biographical significance and narrative content. The story centers on Hermann Soergel, a German Shakespeare scholar who receives Shakespeare’s memory as a gift, only to find it alienates him from his own identity, illustrating the tension between selfhood and inherited memory. The article situates this work in relation to Borges’s earlier stories, highlighting recurring motifs such as the interplay between life and literary creation, the instability of the self, and cultural appropriation, while noting Borges’s subtle self-inscription in the narrator. It argues that “Shakespeare’s Memory” offers a complex, reflective perspective on memory’s role in shaping identity and literary legacy, enriching the understanding of Borges’s late fiction without merely replicating his earlier achievements.