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Abstract

This essay proposes a metaphysical reading of "Yzur", one of the stories in "Las fuerzas extrañas" ("The Strange Forces"). Yzur is a monkey whom his master teaches to speak, and who dies, overwhelmed by the humanity that speech has awakened in him. Certain ideas about monkeys which classical antiquity accepted as true are presented, ideas which may have helped L. Lugones in the construction of a (pseudo) scientific framework permitting the final miracle. A passage from the "Lunario sentimental" is also identified in order to show Lugones's special interest in the truncated but recoverable humanity of apes. In the complementary section of the essay, it is proposed to read ‘Yzur' as an antecedent to two stories by Borges, "Funes, el memorioso" and "El inmortal", discussing the theme of lost and/or recovered memory.