Básnik-vedec v tradícii národa (Octavio Paz)
THE POET-SCHOLAR IN THE TRADITI ON OF THE NATION (OCTAVIO PAZ)

Summary/Abstract: On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the Mexican poet Octavio Paz, this contribution focuses on his essay The Labyrinth of Solitude. Through the analysis of dialectic conceptualization of solitude, it briefly interprets the main characteristics of Paz’s poetic, scholarly and human formation. The key towards revealing the cultural identity of the Mexican nation is the search for a mythical hero, which enables us to analyze various aspects of life in Mexico with the aim of psychoanalytic recovery of its hidden aspects, ultimately valid for the human existence as such. This requires a necessary focus on tradition, the past of the nation, thanks to which it is possible to critically evaluate the present and continue to unveil its ageless spiritual- religious principles. The accompanying phenomenon is the presence of the researcher, whose vision of the world is based on the respect for its mysterious, rational and incomprehensible essence. From this emerges Paz’s critique of contemporary neutralizing approaches to the object of study, denying the possibility of spiritual passion or a full symbiosis of the scholarly and artistic creative knowledge.

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