Alberto Girri, or poetry as hermeneutic reason

One of the main factors that makes the poetry of the Argentine Alberto Girri (1919–1991) a whole world of its own is my argument that in a fragmentary world like the present, poets search for a formal integrity which in the act of reading creates not only their own inner world but also the readers'. It is important to insist on this turning point in which most of the Symbolist work is circumscribed. Later, this would be of capital importance for the avant-garde as well as for the post-avant-garde: Mallarmé's Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard would make poetry something absolutely modern. An original distribution of the white and black opened a new space for the text, shifting the then dominant phonocentrism. My close reading of this author as well as the given theoretical frame avoids the failure into an instrumental use either of the page or of the writing but ignoring physical reciprocity. What follows is, that this “shift” privileged heightened vision over audition of the “musical score”. Thus, an intense materialization of the language is achieved that increases the anonymity of the text. ^ Following this new arrangement of words, so to speak, Girri's poetic work now drives deeply inside words in order to lend them dignity from meaning. I conclude that the best way to “render” this poetry with religious aim (L. “re-ligare” to bind the fragmented) is by way of the philosophy of language. I also propose that Girri's task as a translator, mainly from English poetry, represented—with Jorge Luis Borges—a paradigmatic shift in the Spanish American horizon which had been under “logocentric” French rule since the time of Independence. This seismic change of perspective in late Modernism and post-Modernism is represented by a radical screening of Romance rhetoric, it was a shift not only over the inherited mother tongue but over his own work which was increasingly moving towards transcendent and/or metaphysical poetry. ^ Therefore, I did find that Girri's poem was constructed as a mirror closely related to that which was represented in the angelological tradition. ^

Implicit metaphysis of the Visuddhimagga : assāsa-passāsa as a vital animating force

This research examines how assasa-passisa and its surrounding concepts are discussed in Buddhaghossa's 5th century Theravada work, the Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification) to determine if there is metaphysical use of the term in the text and to determine if the concept of assasa-passasa is similar to the better-known Indian concept of prana (metaphysical vital animating force), indicating whether Theravada Buddhism more closely resembles other Indian religions in terms of metaphysical content. Text analysis reveals how assasa-passasa is described in the Visuddhimagga as an animating vital force, suggesting that Theravada Buddhism has an implicit ontology similar to other Indian schools of philosophy. Secondarily, this paper argues that because assisa-passasa plays a similar role to prana in the Visuddhimagga, it is also operationally similar and could be functioning as the implicit intermediary between links in the chain of dependent co-arising-as the vehicle of paticcasamuppada.

Alchemy and Symbolism in the Work of Carlos Estevez

The purpose of this thesis was to explore how alchemy has influenced Carlos Estevez’s work through a study of the symbolic repertoire and the philosophical concepts associated with it in his art, particularly how these are expressed in his artworks and how alchemy has evolved thematically in his oeuvre. The study of alchemy influenced this artist so deeply that even pieces that were not primarily inspired by this philosophical system show traces of it, essentially by representing the concept of transformation, crucial to understanding the alchemical process. This thesis is based on Carl Gustav Jung’s idea of metaphysical transformation as one of the main aspects of alchemy, and on his theory of active imagination as a tool to represent thoughts through artworks. Alchemy transformed Estevez’s art, and by extension the way he approaches life, making him conscious of the importance of transmutation and alchemical concepts.