ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to juxtapose two well-known interpretations of Borges's "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote", Arthur C. Danto and Nelson Goodman. Arthur Danto claims, Menard's Quixote is an "extremely original work, that people would be hard pressed to find a predecessor for it in the entire history of literature". He typically regard the "text" as an abstract verbal entity that manifests itself in concrete objects or events. Translations are seen as different texts belonging to a collection determined by the work to be translated. Borges approaches the theme of the universal language by presenting Lull's thinking machine, a thirteenth century antecedent of seventeenth century universal languages. According to Rorty the coherence of the text, is something that emerges as the result of the process of interpretation. Danto examines both Cervantes' and Menard's contexts of production. The nationalist movement came alive as an incipient political identity in Argentina around 1910.
