María Zambrano and Francisco Ayala

Abstract

María Zambrano and Francisco Ayala are considered, from the perspective of the 21^st century, in addition to great creators, the highest exponents of essay writing of their generation, within the framework of the “silver age” of Spanish literature. There are numerous parallels between the two (it is more complex to speak of interinfluences) that have not yet been sufficiently highlighted, and that are very revealing of the cultural field in which they develop their writing; from some common sources (especially Cervantes, Schopenhauer, Unamuno and Ortega, profoundly reinterpreted by both); of values and keys to better understand the crucial time they lived and their experience of exile. But almost more interesting are the nuances and divergences that —even from common concerns— we appreciate in the work of one and the other. With very different characters and with different worldviews, Zambrano and Ayala will be the maximum expression in their time, respectively, of original poetic thought and narrative and essay writing driven by the search for meaning and by the effort to explain the world. The idealism that Zambrano sometimes arrives at never completely loses contact with reality; Ayalian realism governed by ethics is never alien to ideality. These dimensions appear clearer if we put them in counterpoint. An in-depth investigation of what we are proposing exceeds the scope of this contribution, which we offer as a first outline of these pending tasks and the possible paths they could take in the future, through numerous partial approaches or even a monographic investigation.