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The Ironic Rationality of Razón de amor. Pedro Salinas: Logic, Language and Poetry
Author(s) -
Havard Robert G.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1982.tb01061.x
Subject(s) - poetry , irrationality , philosophy , literature , metaphor , rationality , rhetoric , articulation (sociology) , epistemology , linguistics , art , politics , political science , law
Summary Salinas adopts an intensely rationalistic approach in Razón de amor with many poems being strictly razones . The abundance of linguistic formuli proper to the domain of argument and rhetoric is indicative of this approach. However, the procedure is an ironic one, for love, as the poet well knows, cannot the rationalized. Looking beyond the apparatus of linguistic formuli to uncover the real arguments which the poems offer, it is apparent that they hinge on dubious logicalities which in fact are only logical in poetic sense; they hinge namely, upon the poetic contrivances of metaphor, conceit and personification, each of which is examined in the paper. These contrivanced render the logic specious and indeed serve to point up the essential irrationality of love. Salinas thus achieves a twofold objective: he gives rational articulation to the cornerstone of his metaphysic, love, but at the same time he preserves intact love's irrationality.