The young Rafael Gutiérrez Girardot. Notes for an intellectual biography: the discovering of Jorge Luis Borges and his stimulating influence

Abstract

The article attempts to bring to light the intellectual stimulus felt by the essayist Rafael Gutiérrez Girardot through his discovery of Jorge Luis Borges literature. To guide us in demonstrating this intellectual stimulation we will use some of Girardot‘s earlies works, “Notas de lectura a Gottfried Benn”, which were published for the young Colombian in the Madrid-based magazine Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos. Two amply significant aspects can be extracted from this stimulating influence: the first, of a reflexive manner, involves an aesthetic conception of intellectual labor; the second entails an attitude –an ethical ethos- which teaches us that, as hispanic americans, we can manage the problems and worries that characterize the  complex evolution of modern thought whit confidence, rigor and self-assurance.