Zambrano, María (1904–1991)

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Zambrano, María (1904–1991)

Spanish philosopher and essayist. Name variations: Maria Zambrano. Born on April 25, 1904, in Vélez Málaga, Spain; died in August 1991, in Madrid, Spain.

First woman and first philosopher to receive the Spanish language's premier award, the Cervantes Prize (1988).

Selected writings:

Nuevo liberalismo (New Liberalism, 1930); Horizonte del liberalismo (1930); Los intelectuales en el drama de España (Intellectuals in the Drama of Spain, 1937); Hacia un saber sobre el alma (Toward a Knowledge of the Soul, 1937); Filosofía y poesía (Philosophy and Poetry, 1939); Pensamiento y poesía en la vida española (Thought and Poetry in Spanish Life, 1939); Isla de Puerto Rico: Nostalgia y esperanza de un mundo mejor (Puerto Rico: Nostalgia and Hope of a Better World, 1940); El freudismo: Testimonio del hombre actual (Freudianism: Testimony to Contemporary Man, 1940); El pensamiento vivo de Séneca (Seneca's Living Thought, 1944); La agonía de Europa (Europe's Agony, 1945); El hombre y lo divino (Man and Divinity, 1955); La España de Galdós (Galdós' Spain, 1959); El sueño creador (Creative Dreaming, 1965); España, sueño y verdad (Spain, Dream and Truth, 1965); La tumba de Antíona (1967); Ensayos y notas: 1939–1969 (1977); Claros del bosque (Forest Clearings, 1977); Dos escritios autobiográficos: El nacimiento (1981); Andalucía, sueño y realidad (1984); Senderos (1986); De la aurora (Concerning Dawn, 1986); Persona y democracia: La historia sacrificial (1988); La confesión: Género literario (1989); Notas de un método (1989); Delirio y destino (Delirium and Destiny, 1989); Los bienaventurados (1990); El parpadeo de la luz (1991); Los sueños y el tiempo (Dreams and Time, 1992); Para una historia de la piedad (1993).

Spanish philosopher María Zambrano was born in 1904 in Vélez Málaga. Although her parents were teachers in small towns, they provided a cultured environment in which intellectuals such as poet Antonio Machado were frequent visitors. Zambrano decided at age four, after suffering a potentially fatal illness, that she would become a philosopher. In 1926, the family moved to Madrid, where Zambrano completed her studies for a degree in philosophy and letters. Especially influenced by philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, Zambrano also studied with Xavier Zubiri and Manuel García Morente. Her literary acquaintances during this period included Rosa Chacel , Rafael Alberti, Pedro Salinas, and other poets of the "Generation of 1927."

While working on her doctorate in 1930, Zambrano lectured in philosophy and joined the Republic's Cultural Missions, where her circle of friends included intellectuals and artists such as Luis Cernuda, Rafael Dieste, José Antonio Maravall, and Ramón Gaya. She also befriended Miguel Hernández and future Nobel laureate Camilo José Cela, all of whom she evoked in her 1937 memoir, Los intelectuales en el drama de España.

Zambrano's earliest volume, the 1930 Nuevo liberalismo, builds upon the utopian socialist thoughts of her father, another important and enduring influence. The work of other philosophers informed her own thinking on metaphysics, which soon evolved into a lifelong interest in the human soul. Henri Bergson influenced her concepts of time, intuition, history, and the fusion of the poetic, personal, and philosophical; Martin Heidegger contributed to her rejection of philosophical rationalism and scientific reason. Although Zambrano often published her work in the popular press first, which enabled her to clarify issues for a readership unfamiliar with philosophical jargon or complexity, her writing never lacked substance or density.

El hombre y lo divino, which was published in 1955 and is considered her masterpiece, explains religious experience and human attitudes toward the unknown. Her work often concerns subjective states and the role time plays in human existence. Her dream-theories synthesize relationships

between dreams and the creative word. Other pivotal concepts include tragedy, religion, poetry, the novel, and philosophy. Zambrano's emphasis on intuition places her within a mystical tradition, wherein she tries to reform understanding through the use of the irrational. She also views man as a yet-undeciphered puzzle whose new understanding will result from the soul revealing its deeply held knowledge.

Republican involvement forced Zambrano into exile following the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39. She taught in Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, spending 11 years in Rome from 1952 to 1963, and residing briefly in Switzerland before moving to France and living on a small farm just across the border from Geneva from 1964 to 1980. In 1981, awarded the national Prince of Asturias literary prize, she received significant official and critical recognition in Spain, and in 1984 she returned to Madrid, among the last exiles repatriated. Although Republican affiliation had prolonged Zambrano's obscurity during the Franco dictatorship, conditions had changed radically when she returned, and numerous honors showered her final years. In 1988, she was the first woman and first philosopher to receive the Spanish language's highest award, the Cervantes Prize. She died in 1991 in Madrid.