‘Man carries all animals within himself’

This article addresses Rubens’s perspective on the human-animal by focusing on the satyr as one of his favourite mythological characters. This profoundly liminal being appears in a variety of roles throughout his oeuvre, including several paintings that remained in his private collection. In some of them, the satyr is primarily a figure for unbridled lustfulness and sensuality. In many others, however, this hybrid creature appears to hold the key to some of the mysteries of nature itself. Another facet of this analysis concerns the long-standing connection between this mythological character and literary satire. Rubens’s satyr-themed images bear a number of salient qualities of this literary genre as one that destabilizes boundaries: between the beautiful and the repulsive, the tragic and the comical, the sublime and the grotesque.

Wittgenstein, Ordinary Language, and Poeticity

The later Wittgenstein famously holds that an understanding which tries to run up against the limits of language bumps itself and results in nothing but plain nonsense. Therefore, the task of philosophy cannot be to create an ‘ideal’ language so as to produce a ‘real’ understanding for the first time; its aim must be to remove particular misunderstandings by clarifying the use of our ordinary language. Accordingly, Wittgenstein opposes both the sublime terms of traditional philosophy and the formal frameworks of modern logics—and adheres to a pointedly casual, colloquial style in his own philosophizing. However, there seems to lurk a certain inconsistency in Wittgenstein’s ordinary language approach: his philosophical remarks frequently remain enigmatic, and many of the terms Wittgenstein coins seem to be highly technical. Thus, one might wonder whether his verdicts on the limits of language and on philosophical jargons might not be turned against his own practice. The present essay probes the extent to which the contravening tendencies in Wittgenstein’s mature philosophy might be reconciled. Section 2 sketches Wittgenstein’s general approach to philosophy and tracks the special rôle that the language of everyday life occupies therein. Section 3 reconstructs Wittgenstein’s preferred method for philosophy, which he calls perspicuous representation, and argues that this method implements an aesthetic conception of philosophy and a poetic approach to philosophical language, in which philosophical insights are not explicitly stated, but mediated through well-worded and creatively composed descriptions. Section 4 discusses how Wittgenstein’s philosophical poetics relates to artificial terminologies and grammars in philosophy and science.

Estéticas feministas y prácticas artísticas audiovisuales en España. Intervenir en la memoria, sentir el presente, impulsar el futuro

This article analyzes the relationships between current developments in audiovisual practices and feminist aesthetics in Spain. This confluence actively participates in the paradigm shift, both discursive and experiential, of certain contemporary identity issues, thus promoting a rewriting of both concepts and practices, encouraging the creation of alternative imaginaries. Hence, in this symbiotic participation, new forms and experiences are discovered, alterations of the traditional canon of art, of the beauty and the sublime, and a visibility of the everyday through a reaffirmation of the experience blurring the limits of the public and the private. In this regard, we will conclude pointing out the importance of said interweaving, focusing on how female artists and feminist aesthetics have intervened the hegemonic imaginaries through a rereading of memory, feeling the present and promoting more inclusive alternative ways of seeing. El presente artículo analiza las relaciones entre los desarrollos actuales de las prácticas audiovisuales y la Estética feminista en España. Dicha confluencia participa activamente en el cambio de paradigma, tanto discursivo como experiencial, de ciertas cuestiones identitarias contemporáneas, promoviendo así una reescritura tanto de los conceptos como de las prácticas, incitando la creación de imaginarios alternativos. De este modo, en dicha participación simbiótica se descubren nuevas formas y experiencias, alteraciones del canon tradicional del arte, de la belleza y lo sublime, y una visibilización de lo cotidiano a través de una reafirmación de la experiencia que diluye los límites de lo público y lo privado. Concluiremos, así, señalando la importancia de dicha imbricación, incidiendo en cómo las mujeres artistas y la estética feminista han intervenido los imaginarios hegemónicos a través de una relectura de la memoria, sintiendo el presente e impulsando modos de ver alternativos más inclusivos.

The Sublime in Motion: Longinus, Freud, and Embedded Metaphors

This paper explores the relevance and the effect of the sublime in connection with Dionysian inspiration, Freud’s concept of the uncanny, and the interpretation of metaphorical thinking developed in the field of cognitive psychology.