Maria Zambrano's Theory of Literature as Knowledge and Contingency

Maria Zambrano's work contradicts the common notion that there is a dearth of philosophy and literary theory in Spain. She argued that Spanish conceptual thinking is embedded in literature in the form of a razin poetica, a concept that, unlike traditional philosophical reason, includes the emotions. Zambrano's philosophical approach to literature focuses on the nature of the self in society in such books as Filosofia y poesia, Pensamiento y poesia en la vida espafiola, and La confesiin como genero literario. The ideas developed in these books, when applied to analyses of specific texts, such as Don Quixote and several of Gald6s's novels, reveal knowledge and selfhood as contingent upon gender and nation. Zambrano's essays on particular texts focus on female characters who best represent reason and Spain's sense of nationhood. Benigna of Misericordia is the novelistic character she finds most suited to her theories of literature as the locus of Spanish poetic reason

Contingency · Epistemology · Sociology · Latin American Literature Studies · Literature, Culture, and Aesthetics · Philosophy · Psychology · Spanish Philosophy and Literature