The word freed from language: silence and liberation in María Zambrano

Abstract

In the following work we will deal with the function of the word and more generally the linguistic dimension (oral and written) in the thought of the Spanish philosopher María Zambrano. We will do this by referring mainly to figures such as silence, emptiness (vacío), nothingness (la nada), the sacred (lo sagrado) and, linked to these, to essential movements capable of setting in motion and reviving (renacer) the original word, such as delirium, rhythm, time, dream and dance. In Zambrano, the word always takes on a vital and energetic characterization, capable of continually manifesting itself as an unexpected force in perpetual rebirth. It should also be emphasized that the Spanish philosopher is not looking for a rigid method through which to forge a new word full of voluntaristic aspirations. Instead, we are in the presence of a type of stratification of the linguistic in which, albeit for brief and privileged moments, the word releases itself from its communicative obligations that continually drown it, attempting to show itself in its embryonic state, in which its status as the primary seal of the magic of the real still remains unchanged.