ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the idea that mourning is not simply a form of psychological work; it is a process centrally involving the experience of making something, creating something adequate to the experience of loss. What is "made", and the experience of making it—which together might be thought of as "the art of mourning"—represent the individual's effort to meet, to be equal to, to do justice to, the fullness and complexity of his or her relationship to what has been lost, and to the experience of loss itself. The chapter discusses two of Jorge Luis Borges's writings: "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote", and "Borges and I". Both pieces were written at critical junctures in Borges's life, each involving experiences of enormous loss. The sound and structure of mourning in "Borges and I" and in "Pierre Menard" are quite different.
