POETIC REASON AND AMOROUS EXPERIENCE:
THE FIGURE OF HELOISE IN THE PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT OF MARÍA ZAMBRANO
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7443/problemata.v17i1.78889Keywords:
María Zambrano, Heloise of Argenteuil, Amorous experience, Poetic ReasonAbstract
This article analyzes María Zambrano’s interpretation of the love letters written by Héloïse of Argenteuil (c. 1090–1164) to Peter Abelard in the twelfth century. The methodology is theoretical and bibliographical, drawing on the analysis of Zambrano's essay "Eloísa ou a presença da mulher" (1945), in dialogue with Heloise's letters, other texts by Zambrano, and the specialized critical literature. Zambrano uses these letters to problematize social expectations and gender roles, offering a critique of the Western philosophical tradition that has confined women to a metaphysical, idealized existence detached from concrete experience. In contrast to the figures of the maiden and the witch, Héloïse emerges as a singular mode of existence that breaks with such models by affirming her experience through language. The findings reveal how, in the letters, love ceases to function merely as a feeling and becomes a path to knowledge, displacing the boundaries historically imposed on female subjectivity. Within Zambrano's framework, Heloise's writings stand as a locus of intersection among amorous experience, thought, and life.
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References
ABELARDO e HELOÍSA. Historia calamitatum e Cartas. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 2008.
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ORTEGA MUNÕZ, Juan Fernando. Introdução. María Zambrano: A aventura de ser mulher; trad. Maria de Lourdes Assis. 1ª ed. Lisboa : Colibri, 2013.
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ZAMBRANO, Maria. Eloisa o la existência de la mujer. Sur Revista Mensual. Buenos Aires, Ano XIV, 1945.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Solange Aparecida de Campos Costa, Doriane Araújo Chaves, Dayana Mendes Lopes
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