Papers by SERGI CASTELLA MARTINEZ
Ramon Llull and the Communicating Vessels Between Catholicism and Occultism in Early Twentieth-Century France
Romance Quarterly, 71(4), 2024
In 1919, the Avant-garde poet Max Jacob translated Ramon Llull’s mystical work, the Llibre d’amic... more In 1919, the Avant-garde poet Max Jacob translated Ramon Llull’s mystical work, the Llibre d’amic e amat (Book of the Lover and the Beloved). In 1921, another translation appeared, authored by the Hispanist and Catholic activist Marius André. The plural strands of modern literary reception of Llull have only been superficially addressed. At the beginning of the 20th century, both Catholic intellectuals and Occultist circles considered his mystical and evangelical endeavors to have extraordinary imaginative potential. Catholic and conservative spheres were prompted to justify the validity and orthodoxy of Lullian doctrines, and to define him as a model. Simultaneously, pseudo-Lullist sources praising his alchemical adventures and the fanciful plasticity of his symbology were noted by Jacob and the Parisian Surrealist circle.This article analyzes the context of two modern translations of the Llibre d’amic e amat (Book of the Lover and the Beloved), as well as the motivations of their translators, to assess the confluence of interests and themes within these traditions. It thus showcases the interdependency between Christian apologetics, often connected to the Catalan intellectuals who were publishing Llull’s works at the time, and an international current of eclectic pseudo-Lullism, spanning from at least the 17th century, that was still influential in the works of pansophists, alchemical authors and Surrealist writers, and that would inform present-day, creative reception of the philosopher.
Artistic imagination and its role in moral progress. Embracing William James’ cries of the wounded
Philosophy and Social Criticism, 2024
In recent pragmatist-leaning philosophy and ethics, the Jamesian notion of the cries of the wound... more In recent pragmatist-leaning philosophy and ethics, the Jamesian notion of the cries of the wounded has reemerged as a method of evoking moral progress. Philosophers like Philip Kitcher have argued that a surefooted approach to the complaints of those harmed by given social moral arrangements may lead to an improvement of moral thought, practices and institutions. Yet, at the same time, it has been acknowledged that this comprises a most evident problem: many wounded stakeholders do not cry out about their sorrow, not at last because they may not becapableof doing so. In this paper, we aim atproviding a more detailed account on the communicative range of social unrest, capable of over coming the reductive vision of some possibly harmed as being silent. Some moral philosophers have highlighted the role of the arts and the humanities in the fostering of a more empathetic imagination. With the aid of continental aesthetics (T. W. Adorno and M. Beistegui), we acknowledge the value of artistic imagination as a communicative faculty extending beyond the limits of discursive reason through non-conceptual tools. Taking it into account in moral inquiry effectively expands and provides a more detailed account on the wounded that are apparently silent, as it includes a variety of forms of communication as moral standpoints and conversational apostrophes. This finally leads us to reread James’ take on the notion of the cries of the wounded, to emphasize the necessity to understand it as a fruitful stance about inclusive moral inquiry exceeding the limits of a conceptual-discursive focus
Cahiers ERTA, 33, p. 69-93, 2023
Antonin Artaud’s « Théâtre de la cruauté » consists in the extreme display of the conflictive nat... more Antonin Artaud’s « Théâtre de la cruauté » consists in the extreme display of the conflictive nature of the world. The Catalan poet Josep Palau i Fabre highlighted the poetic and negative dimensions of Artaud’s project and insisted on its failure, addressing its impossible objectivation and its similarity with alchemy. The article aims to identify the central elements of Palau’s interpretation, annihilation and debirth, and to assess their inscription in an experimental poetics proposal inspired by alchemy.
Bandue: Revista de la Sociedad Española de Ciencias de las Religiones, 13, p. 73-100, 2021
RESUMEN: El artículo explora los indicios de comprensión como artefacto poético del Ars inveniend... more RESUMEN: El artículo explora los indicios de comprensión como artefacto poético del Ars inveniendi veritatem, el método combinatorio de pensamiento y contemplación inventado por Ramon Llull (1232-1316), en una poesía de J. V. Foix (1893-1987), Tota amor és latent… (1964). Tras relacionar el Ars de Llull con las definiciones de poética y religión que enfatizan su común dimensión práctica, combinatoria y abierta, el análisis del poema se centrará en la analogía vegetal-acuática que aúna la capacidad productiva humana con el esplendor expresivo de la pluralidad natural. El objetivo del estudio de la poesía es mostrar la integración de la poética foixiana, esto es, la metaforización sistemática de la realidad más concreta y cercana, con la tematización de la interdependencia cósmica de todo lo ente, como eje poético que usa Foix para sondear la pregunta acerca del misterio y ofrecer un objeto, el poema, en el que se manifiesta una respuesta provisional traspasada por la experiencia de lectura y el ejemplo de vida de Ramon Llull. La posibilidad de comprender a Llull por medio de Foix, torna la obra de ambos en ejemplo fructífero de la renovación del discurso religioso que conlleva la asunción de su condición poética.
ABSTRACT: The article explores the evidence of the understanding of the Ars inveniendi veritatem, the combinatorial method of thought and contemplation conceived by Ramon Llull (1232-1316), as a poetic artefact, in a poem by J. V. Foix (1893-1987), Tota amor és latent… (1964). After relating Llull’s Ars with the definitions of Poetics and Religion that emphasise their common practical, combinatorial and open aspect, the analysis of the poem will focus on the vegetal-aquatic analogy that brings together the human productive ability with the expressive splendour of natural plurality. With the study of the poem we aim to show the integration of the Foixian poetics, that is, the systematic metaphorisation of the most precise and close reality, with the thematisation of cosmic interdependency of all beings, as the poetic axis used by Foix to probe the question about the mystery and to offer an object, the poem, where a provisional answer, pierced by the reading experience and life example of Ramon Llull, is manifested. The possibility of understanding Llull through Foix turns both authors’ work into a fruitful example of the renewal of religious discourse that the assumption of their poetic condition entails.
Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, 2021
ABSTRACT A number of modern poets have presented their works as an alchemical endeavor. Their ver... more ABSTRACT A number of modern poets have presented their works as an alchemical endeavor. Their verses display the hermeneutical clues of an analogy that elaborates on a heterodox ancestral practice and that simultaneously assumes poetry’s experimental nature. Alchemical poetology constitutes thus a specific alternative of contemporary poetic expression, and it stands out for its elements’ material treatment. The article describes and exemplifies various procedures of poetic objectification through which Josep Palau i Fabre’s works between 1937 and 1952 dissolve the traditional distance between object and subject and compose a world of objects where words, sounds and meanings arbitrarily collide beyond any subjective assessment. The material and practical aspects of an alchemical poetology lead thus to a reassessment of the objective shift of Aesthetics derived from the philosophical shattering of the subject, since the poetic elements and the poems themselves manifest the inaccessibility of any complete subjective experience of the objects, independently of their form and condition. The main goal of the article is to contribute on providing a clearer description of the nuanced belief that brings together an alchemical poetology and experimental poetics. The intuition of the world’s horizontal and arbitrary order manifests in the accumulative and apparently unsuccessful poetic attempts of attaining the actual, most authentic self. The alchemical condition of poetry consists in the succession and collision of images that are not bound to conceptual representation, but that rather reflect their status as essays, as fragments of an ongoing experiment that would be inert should its material condition and its inexpressible core not always be considered. Only in the succession and accumulation of such images finds Palau i Fabre’s alchemical poetry its consummation, faithful to the plurality and inconformity of all metaphors, and always pushed to further approaches, to endless experimentation.
Book chapters by SERGI CASTELLA MARTINEZ
Teixir xarxa, fer camí. Aportacions presents al futur de la catalanística, 2022
Resum: La crítica filològica ha identificat amb encert la vocació luŀlista de la poesia tardana d... more Resum: La crítica filològica ha identificat amb encert la vocació luŀlista de la poesia tardana de Verdaguer. Aquesta investigació enceta la descripció de les condicions de possibilitat de la recepció creativa de Llull en la poesia catalana contemporània tot vinculant els precedents estètics i inteŀlectuals de Verdaguer amb la seva pròpia aproximació al Libre de amic e amat en les Perles. L’amic i l’amat (1908).
Abstract: Philologists have soundly identified the lullist vocation in late Verdaguer’s poetry. This research undertakes the description of the conditions of possibility for Llull’s creative reception in Catalan contemporary poetry through the connection of Verdaguer’s aesthetic and intellectual predecessors to his own approach to the Libre de amic e amat in Perles. L’amic i l’amat (1908).
Reescriptures literàries: La hipertextualitat en les literatures occidentals (1900-1939), 2020
El propòsit d’aquest article és partir de les paraules poètiques de les Perles (1908) de Verdague... more El propòsit d’aquest article és partir de les paraules poètiques de les Perles (1908) de Verdaguer i les Flors lul·lianes (1918) de Valls i Vicens per detectar l’abast de la relació conceptual que traven amb el text lul·lià, i contrastar l’exercici d’homenatge de Valls amb la reescriptura verdagueriana, que transcendeix els límits convencionals de la recepció lul·liana de l’època, perquè per mitjà de l’elaboració i la reflexió sobre la matèria lul·liana se’n distancia i n’amida plantejaments poètics propis. L’exercici de reescriptura serà entès com a espai privilegiat de manifestació no ja només de les afinitats intel·lectuals entre dos textos, sinó de tot l’espectre de les diferències. L’aproximació hermenèutica i comparativa mostrarà que les dues reescriptures, contemporànies entre elles i amb el mateix hipotext, serveixen a metes diverses perquè són combinacions lliures de la matèria hipotextual, fetes manifestes de manera exemplar en les tries i els refusos formals i conceptuals.
The aim of this paper is the detection of the scope of the conceptual relationship stablished between Verdaguer’s Perles (1908) and Valls i Vicens’ Flors lul·lianes (1918) by an attentive interpretation of their poetic words. It will in addition compare Valls’ homage and Verdaguer’s rewriting, which transcends the conventional limits of contemporary Llull’s reception, because it keeps distance and proposes its own poetic statements through the elaboration and reflection on Llull’s text. The enterprise of rewriting will be understood as a privileged space of manifestation not just for the intellectual affinity between two texts, but also for the whole spectrum of differences. The hermeneutical and comparative approach will show that the two rewritings, which are contemporary and share the hypotext, serve to different purposes because they are free combinations of the hypotextual matter, something that is paradigmatically apparent in the formal and conceptual choices and rejections.
Reviews by SERGI CASTELLA MARTINEZ
Studia Lulliana, 60, 2020
Dia-Logos és un volum col•lectiu que aborda l'Art de Ramon Llull com a mètode combinatori, i n'ex... more Dia-Logos és un volum col•lectiu que aborda l'Art de Ramon Llull com a mètode combinatori, i n'explora la rellevància en l'aspecte creatiu del pensament i de les arts. S'hi emfasitza la comprensió del mètode lul•lià com a pràctica dialògica, és a dir, de reunió i conjunció de diversos elements amb l'ambició de trobar el nou que rau en el vincle. Llull elabora un original sistema teològic i filosòfic basat en la interrelació d'un joc finit d'elements (dignitats divines, principis relatius, substàncies, vicis i virtuts) que generen les raons necessàries per assumir els reptes de totes les ciències i disposar els éssers humans a la comprensió dels misteris de la fe i a la contemplació de Déu. En aquest sentit, el volum posa en primer terme el caràcter creatiu de la combinatòria, que és una poiesis de la juxtaposició, la permutació, la variació i el joc lingüístic, i, per tant, íntimament emparentada amb els esforços creatius de poetes i artistes de totes les èpoques, que han fet de la co-implicació sistemàtica de principis diferents la condició de la producció d'enunciats o imatges.
Uploads
Papers by SERGI CASTELLA MARTINEZ
ABSTRACT: The article explores the evidence of the understanding of the Ars inveniendi veritatem, the combinatorial method of thought and contemplation conceived by Ramon Llull (1232-1316), as a poetic artefact, in a poem by J. V. Foix (1893-1987), Tota amor és latent… (1964). After relating Llull’s Ars with the definitions of Poetics and Religion that emphasise their common practical, combinatorial and open aspect, the analysis of the poem will focus on the vegetal-aquatic analogy that brings together the human productive ability with the expressive splendour of natural plurality. With the study of the poem we aim to show the integration of the Foixian poetics, that is, the systematic metaphorisation of the most precise and close reality, with the thematisation of cosmic interdependency of all beings, as the poetic axis used by Foix to probe the question about the mystery and to offer an object, the poem, where a provisional answer, pierced by the reading experience and life example of Ramon Llull, is manifested. The possibility of understanding Llull through Foix turns both authors’ work into a fruitful example of the renewal of religious discourse that the assumption of their poetic condition entails.
Book chapters by SERGI CASTELLA MARTINEZ
Abstract: Philologists have soundly identified the lullist vocation in late Verdaguer’s poetry. This research undertakes the description of the conditions of possibility for Llull’s creative reception in Catalan contemporary poetry through the connection of Verdaguer’s aesthetic and intellectual predecessors to his own approach to the Libre de amic e amat in Perles. L’amic i l’amat (1908).
The aim of this paper is the detection of the scope of the conceptual relationship stablished between Verdaguer’s Perles (1908) and Valls i Vicens’ Flors lul·lianes (1918) by an attentive interpretation of their poetic words. It will in addition compare Valls’ homage and Verdaguer’s rewriting, which transcends the conventional limits of contemporary Llull’s reception, because it keeps distance and proposes its own poetic statements through the elaboration and reflection on Llull’s text. The enterprise of rewriting will be understood as a privileged space of manifestation not just for the intellectual affinity between two texts, but also for the whole spectrum of differences. The hermeneutical and comparative approach will show that the two rewritings, which are contemporary and share the hypotext, serve to different purposes because they are free combinations of the hypotextual matter, something that is paradigmatically apparent in the formal and conceptual choices and rejections.
Reviews by SERGI CASTELLA MARTINEZ
ABSTRACT: The article explores the evidence of the understanding of the Ars inveniendi veritatem, the combinatorial method of thought and contemplation conceived by Ramon Llull (1232-1316), as a poetic artefact, in a poem by J. V. Foix (1893-1987), Tota amor és latent… (1964). After relating Llull’s Ars with the definitions of Poetics and Religion that emphasise their common practical, combinatorial and open aspect, the analysis of the poem will focus on the vegetal-aquatic analogy that brings together the human productive ability with the expressive splendour of natural plurality. With the study of the poem we aim to show the integration of the Foixian poetics, that is, the systematic metaphorisation of the most precise and close reality, with the thematisation of cosmic interdependency of all beings, as the poetic axis used by Foix to probe the question about the mystery and to offer an object, the poem, where a provisional answer, pierced by the reading experience and life example of Ramon Llull, is manifested. The possibility of understanding Llull through Foix turns both authors’ work into a fruitful example of the renewal of religious discourse that the assumption of their poetic condition entails.
Abstract: Philologists have soundly identified the lullist vocation in late Verdaguer’s poetry. This research undertakes the description of the conditions of possibility for Llull’s creative reception in Catalan contemporary poetry through the connection of Verdaguer’s aesthetic and intellectual predecessors to his own approach to the Libre de amic e amat in Perles. L’amic i l’amat (1908).
The aim of this paper is the detection of the scope of the conceptual relationship stablished between Verdaguer’s Perles (1908) and Valls i Vicens’ Flors lul·lianes (1918) by an attentive interpretation of their poetic words. It will in addition compare Valls’ homage and Verdaguer’s rewriting, which transcends the conventional limits of contemporary Llull’s reception, because it keeps distance and proposes its own poetic statements through the elaboration and reflection on Llull’s text. The enterprise of rewriting will be understood as a privileged space of manifestation not just for the intellectual affinity between two texts, but also for the whole spectrum of differences. The hermeneutical and comparative approach will show that the two rewritings, which are contemporary and share the hypotext, serve to different purposes because they are free combinations of the hypotextual matter, something that is paradigmatically apparent in the formal and conceptual choices and rejections.