Abstract

The present article considers the implications projected by the main characters of Universal History of Infamy by Jorge Luis Borges. The seven protagonists embody a common pattern in their infamous trajectory: they exploit the tools of power by using discourse, according to the proposition by Michel Foucault, despite their being “on the other side of the law”. Although conditioned by specific historical-cultural circumstances, these heroes-antiheroes share the use of evil and the ascent to a seudo-mythical pedestal subsequently to the summit of their infamy. One of the central ideas of the article is that the tension between evil –abjection– and the ascension to the category of myth –sublimation– originates the discharge of the infamy and configures its universal image.