BIBLIOTECA – UN LABIRINT?
The Library – a Labyrinth?

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims at identifying the signification of the library in two literary works belonging to Mircea Eliade and J. L. Borges: Secretul doctorului Honigberger (The Secret of Dr. Honigberger) and La Biblioteca de Babel (The Library of Babel). In both volumes the library is connected to the image of the labyrinth. In Eliadeʼs novelette the labyrinthine space of the library is suggested through different techniques or objects, while in Borgesʼ text the library is the universe itself. Comparing the two literary works, the reader gets to discover that the library could be associated with a maze whose centre is everywhere and nowhere. It is Umberto Ecoʼs identification of this kind of maze which reveals the importance of the library in type of space and in any period of time.

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