Fuera de escena. Notas sobre “Hombre de la esquina rosada” de Jorge Luis Borges

This paper analyzes Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “Hombre de la esquina rosada”. The story artfully obscures its main episode—the moment when the narrator kills Francisco Real—to achieve a surprise effect in the final paragraph, where the narrator subtly reveals that he is the killer. Throughout the story, crucial events unfold offstage (fuera de escena) and are revealed later. This paper investigates how the narrator employs offstage action and an unexpected final revelation as key narrative strategies. The narrator’s deliberate self-effacement and misdirection culminate in a final, indirect admission of guilt, aligning the story with the mystery genre, where the narrator is the hidden murderer. Borges’s technique of shifting from first to third person, depicting himself as another, enhances the narrative’s complexity, embodying his theme of identity fusion. The present analysis examines how Borges constructs a story where the unseen and unsaid become central to its structure and revelation.