Fiction and Intertextuality in a short story of Borges

The Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges is one of the most famous author of fantastic literature in the 20th century. One of his favorite theme is the investigation of the infinite possibilities of human mind and the stylistic and method utilized is the intertextuality. Both of them are illustrated in the story "La otra muerte" ("The other death"). The protagonist of this story is a common man named Pedro Damian, a parodycal reconstruction of a historical figure, the Italian medieval theologian Pietro Damiani The character of Borges' story, even if he is an apparently inoffensive man, possesses extraordinary spiritual powers. So, he tries to modify or to cancel a shameful episode of his life and convert himself into a hero instead of a coward. At the end, by applying this method of concentrated power of his mind, he manages to change not the past but the consciousness of the past in the minds of those which knew him.