The category of place in the thought of Maria Zambrano

Abstract

This text analyzes place (topoi) as a central category in the thought of Maria Zambrano. Topoi are places evoked by collective memory in the form of art, liturgy and literature, etc. Zambrano directs our attention to them because she believes that ‘Spanish Metaphysical Thought’ has been manifested through certain topoi. In a perspective similar to that of Milan Kundera, Zambrano argues that literature and the arts have registered the hidden history of being, the story left untold by Rationalism. La Celestina, Don Juan and Don Quixote are some of these places with which Spanish thought has been associated. Meditating on them does not entail renouncing the universal assumptions of reason but, rather, recognizing its roots.