Borges's futures: Hypertexts, labyrinths and rhizomes. A twenty-first century reading of 'The Garden of Forking Paths' and 'The Library of Babel'

This dissertation studies Jorge Luis Borges's "The Garden of Forking Paths" and "The Library of Babel" through the lenses of hypertheory, the rhizomatic theory of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and the classification of labyrinths elaborated by Umberto Eco. This variety of contemporary critical approaches has helped me to support my claim that Jorge Luis Borges is a forerunner of the technology of the new millennium because the two stories analyzed in this dissertation embody some of the features present in hypermedia environments as well as some of the features present in hyperfiction. Throughout his metaphysical short stories Jorge Luis Borges has successfully managed to link humanistic studies and sciences. This intricate connection between humanities and science is nowadays almost materialized by the new hyperfiction. Therefore, understanding the relationship between the humanities and the sciences and narrowing the gap between them are two crucial objectives to understand the electronic literature of today and the future.