A Poetic Complement to Reason: Heterogeneity and the Other in the Work of Antonio Machado

Abstract

A Poetic Complement to Reason: Heterogeneity and the Other in the work of Antonio Machado examines some of the late work of the Spanish writer. By focusing on his apocryphal project and especially on its two major texts, De un cancionero apócrifo and Juan de Mairena, I seek to show that the author’s philosophical endeavors are intrinsically related to the major trends within European thought during the tumultuous first decades of the new century. Turning to the problem of reason and the rift that separates its conceptual and non-conceptual sides, Machado advances important understandings of ontological and epistemological nature that remain understudied. The conceptions of human knowledge, life, and freedom that the author elaborates evince his desire to reevaluate the dominant idealist ones and even to part ways with this tradition. From today’s viewpoint, these notions are interesting because they continue to resonate with the ones we hold today. This project, therefore, intervenes in Machado’s scholarship by addressing the theoretical stance of the author and its relationship to issues like emancipation, equality, and communal life that remain pressing.