La ética y estética del "Advertimiento" en la obra de Quevedo

Abstract

Quevedo's literary works display a set of variations on the anthropological and ethical dichotomy between existential awareness (“el vivir advertido”) and existential unawareness and aloofness (“la vida divertida”). As the author of hundreds of satirical and burlesque poems, Quevedo paradoxically exercised a sustained critique of the concept of “diversión”. This essay examines the different ways Quevedo gave lyrical expression to the notion of “diversion” (Pascal’s “divertissement”) in a life-long meditatio mortis. Quevedo's philosophy and poetry of moral awareness, while rooted in the leading currents of Western tradition (from Socrates, the Gospels, Seneca, Saint Augustine to Luis Vives), anticipates some of the main assumptions in the philosophy of Gracián, Pascal, Nietzsche, and Ortega y Gasset.