A POETIC COMPLEMENT TO REASON: HETEROGENEITY AND THE OTHER IN THE WORK OF ANTONIO MACHADO A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Anastasiya Stoyneva August 2017 Examining Committee Members: Dr. Christopher Soufas, Dissertation Advisor Dr. Víctor Pueyo Zoco, Internal Reader Dr. Salvatore Poeta, Villanova University, External Reader 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. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..............................................................................................v PREFACE .......................................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 2. MENDING REASON, AMENDING LIFE AND BEING............................................18 2.1. The Question of Reason ..................................................................................23 2.2. The Problem of Human Thinking ...................................................................28 2.3. Reforming Thought .........................................................................................36 2.4. The Poet as a Skeptic ......................................................................................41 3. THE APOCRYPHAL PROJECT AND FREEDOM AS PLAY ...................................45 3.1. An Apocryphal Investigation ..........................................................................50 3.2. A Poetic Theory of Knowledge ......................................................................57 3.3. Freedom as Play ..............................................................................................62 3.4. Dreaming the Possibility of a Better Life .......................................................70 4. DE UN CANCIONERO APÓCRIFO: TOWARDS A NON-NEGATIVE DIALECTIC, OR “DE LO UNO A LO OTRO”. ..............................................................79 4.1. A Philosophical Astracanada ...........................................................................88 4.2. The Poet-philosopher as a Modern Prometheus ..............................................92 4.3. “La amada…no acude a la cita; es en la cita ausencia” ...................................99 iii 4.4. “El gran cero” .................................................................................................105 4.5. “La máquina de trovar” ...................................................................................111 5. JUAN DE MAIRENA AND THE POETIC DREAM OF UNITY IN DIFFERENCE .................................................................................................................113 5.1. Creating Something in the Image of Nothing .................................................119 5.2. Perspectives, So Many Perspectives ...............................................................125 5.3. “De lo uno a lo otro:” Socrates and Christ ......................................................141 5.4. Unity in Difference .........................................................................................144 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................149 WORKS CITED ..............................................................................................................151 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Works by Antonio Machado: OPP Obras poesía y prosa. Edited by Aurora de Albornoz y Guillermo de Torre, Editorial Losada, 1964. NC Nuevas canciones. Clásicos Castalia, 1971. NOTE: The fragments from Juan de Mairena are referenced by the chapter number and the number of the fragment within it; the poems from Soledades and Campos de Castilla—by title or number. v PREFACE The fact that Antonio Machado’s work continues to attract popular and critical attention since the publication of his early and most acclaimed collections of poetry, Soledades. Galerías. Otros poemas (1907) and Campos de Castilla (1912), is more than simply noteworthy. Less than voluminous but singular in many ways—via transgressions of genre and disciplinary norms and boundaries; the integration of seemingly incompatible viewpoints; the promotion through enactment of aesthetic and philosophic theories; and so on—Machado’s production presents a unique case with the continued interest it has promoted within and beyond his native Spain. Considering the late 20th century revisionist critique of modernist thought1 and the overall diminished recognition of his more or less like-minded compatriots2 as well as the glaring lack of complete 1 From the 1970s on, some critics like Fredric Jameson make it one of their goals not only to prove modernist aesthetics obsolete but also to paint it in predominantly negative colors, accusing the modernist thinkers and artists of elitism, imperialist aspirations, escapism, etc. These allegations turn out to be a watershed in the critical view of Modernism, mostly held in contempt thereafter. Only recently, a revision of both modernist thought and the influential reassessment lead by Jameson and others has started to take place. At its head are philosophers like Jay Bernstein and Robert Pippin, artists like Michael Fried, and others. 2 Beyond the field of Spanish literary studies, very few of the 20th century pre-Franco writers have enjoyed a sustained interest. Among them are Miguel de Unamuno, frequently present in studies and anthologies related to existentialism and the modernist novel, José Ortega y Gasset in many dedicated to 20th century philosophy, and Federico Garcia Lorca in a variety of literary studies. Machado’s famous verses and numerous excerpts from the apocryphal and other late texts continue to circulate in Spanish and in translation, in some cases due to their provocative nature, but more often because of their depth and perspicacity. A case in point is Richard Polt’s choice of Machado’s poem “Al gran cero” for his chapter in A Companion to Heidegger’s Introduction to Metaphysics, to be referred to later. vi translations of his less studied texts,3 Machado’s sustained presence and influence is no small feat. Nor is it, in fact, a fluke that the author’s name and ideas have persevered. To be sure, unlike other similar but more limited in their scope or focus examples, Machado’s diverse body of work continues to engage with some ongoing debates in the humanities. The onset of this commitment is only facilitated by some of the dominant trends of the time, as many enduring polemics, like those related to the nature of the self and its relationship to reality and itself, the sources and the mechanisms involved in acquiring and interpreting meaning, the correlation between the individual and the collective, the particular and the universal, among others, face new challenges around the turn of the 20th century and converge in the urgency to address them. Moreover, some long-standing points of contention take different shapes under the new circumstances. An example of one such transformation—not restricted to the period but with strong ties to it and central for Machado’s late thought— is brought up by Jürgen Habermas in his book with the telling title Postmetaphysical Thinking where he asserts that “the perspectival difference between outside and inside develops and replaces the difference between essence and appearance” (35; emphasis of the author). The broad conclusion that can be drawn is that on the cusp of a variety of important revisionist tendencies, the early- century European thought marks the start of many crucial redefinitions. The factors behind these developments are many: the unprecedented changes in the social make-up of the urban West, brought by its accelerated growth in the second half of the 19th century; the ongoing processes of secularization, industrialization, 3 The major non-poetic texts De un cancionero apócrifo and Juan de Mairena are only partially translated in major languages like German and English and in very few minor ones like Polish, Bulgarian, and Russian among others. vii automatization; the culmination of national and global conflicts; and so forth.