The Dialectics of Faith in the Poetry of José Bergamín

Abstract

This study assesses Bergamín’s poetry in the light of two premises: first, that the notion of faith is the prime mover in Bergamín’s thought and poetry, and, second, that language, being material, militates against the transcendent potential of faith. From the tension between the known (the material) and the unknown (the transcendent) comes the dialectic of faith and doubt which Bergamín enacts in his poetry. Inspired by the work of Cixous and Kristeva, this analysis attempts to site Bergamín’s imagination as an exilic one, as one which is estranged from God. For Bergamín, language has created objectification from the material world, and thus he suggests that we perceive ourselves as separate from others and separate from God. His poetry is concerned with the radical instability of modern experience, and Bergamín seeks to use it as a form of reconciliation. He strives for a faith in the feminine, espousing doubt, fluidity and fusion as against certainty and the dictates of reason. For him, this faith, or reconciliation, is the opposite of exile.