María Zambrano: pathways to poetic reason

Poetic Reason constitutes María Zambrano's greatest contribution to the intellectual history. Standing at the intersection between philosophy, literature, mysticism, poetic reason is, first and foremost, Zambrano's answer to the crisis of Western thought and civilization. But what is poetic reason? These are some of the questions we will address in the course of these two sessions in order to gain an understanding of what is and how it works.

The sessions will be in English. No prior knowledge is required.

Sessions:

1.- Tuesday, 6th April: “The Horizon of Poetic Reason”

Contrary what the title may suggest at first glance, poetic reason is neither a form of philosophy nor of poetry. So what is it? This first session will try to answer this question by discussing the background, aims and key features of poetic reason

2.- Tuesday, 13th April: “Poetic Reason: Some Key Readings”

In this session, we will take forward what we learnt about what poetic reason seeks and how it works and we will use it to help us interpret some of selected short passages of María Zambrano's texts, where we can see poetic reason in action.

Beatriz Caballero Rodríguez is a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow). She is the author of several books and articles on 20th-century History of Ideas in Spain, particularly in the areas of memory, trauma, exile and political philosophy. Her publications include two monographs 'Against Instrumental Reason: Neo-Marxism and Spirituality in the Thought of J.L.L. Aranguren and J. Aguirre' (Anagnórisis, 2013) and, most recently, 'María Zambrano: A Life of Poetic Reason and Political Commitment' (WUP, 2017).