“Deutsches Requiem”, de Borges. El ascetismo del sujeto fascista

The critics that have analyzed Jorge Luis Borges’ “Deutsches Requiem” (1946) have usually focused on the moral inconsistencies committed by its protagonist and narrator, a Nazi officer: Otto Dietrich zur Linde. Otto explicitly states that the goal of Nazism was the destruction of Judeo-Christian values, but he is apparently unable to think outside them. All his autobiography is told through the ascetic ideal, which would make his last message incongruous. The asceticism of Otto, of the "fascist subject", is not to my view a deliberate incongruity of Borges's text. I show in this article that Otto’s deeply ascetic nature is the ultimate result of the model of subjectivity developed by western philosophy.

Dos historias latinoamericanas de la infamia. Una lectura comparada de Morirás lejos de José Emilio Pacheco y “Deutsches Requiem” de Jorge Luis Borges

Este artículo aborda dos obras de escritores latinoamericanos que tienen como tema común el nazismo: “Deutsches Requiem” de Jorge Luis Borges y Morirás lejos de José Emilio Pacheco. Partiendo del problema de la representación del mal, estudiamos las diversas estrategias que estos autores proponen para abordarlo. En primer lugar, los modos de construir a los nazis Otto Dietrich y eme, es decir, de representar “seres absolutamente perversos”. Analizamos luego el empleo de las notas al pie, que contribuyen a multiplicar la instancia narrativa e introducir la autorreflexividad en obras que parecen requerir alguna forma de distanciamiento. Por último, abordamos la intertextualidad bíblica, indagando las funciones específicas que tiene en cada texto. Buscamos abrir perspectivas sobre un problema central para la literatura contemporánea —la escritura del mal— y estimular los estudios sobre las obras literarias latinoamericanas que abordan las Shoah, y que, consideramos, no han recibido suficiente atención de la crítica.

Johannes Brahms – Ein deutsches Requiem

Chapter 8 begins with historical precedents, including Brahms’s appointments as a choral conductor during his early professional life, his interest in and performance of works by J. S. Bach, and his association with Robert Schumann—of short duration but of profound influence. Substantial discussion is also given to the texts about life suffering that Brahms chose for most of his sacred choral compositions. The Requiem is discussed in terms of its long gestation, unification through use of musical motifs, and balanced and mirror structures. Performance practice issues include timbre and vibrato, metric accentuation, disposition of performers on stage, and tempo fluctuation.

“In einem Augenblick”: Christian naturalism, death, and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem”

This article is a Christian naturalist reading of Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem. The first sections briefly introduce the basic commitments of Christian naturalism and the challenge presented to such a theology in the mystery of death. Then, the paper shows how Brahms gives artistic expression to a naturalistic interpretation of death. Brahms uses elements from the Christian myth, especially the apocalyptic, in new ways that are helpful to Christian naturalists seeking to deal with death meaningfully and beautifully.