Silence and Mysticism in “Blanco”, a poem by Octavio Paz

Authors

  • Luis Gustavo Meléndez Guerrero Universidad Iberoamericana

Abstract

Some critics of Paz´s literary work consider that the main theme of Blanco is otherness. In this article we have the task to emphasize, not only this otherness brought to light by the specialists, but also, we will propose that from the core of “Blanco” emerges the mysterious presence that embraces and refers us to transcendence. Through some approaches to Christian Mysticism, religious studies, and visual arts we are given the challenge to read the poem as a mystical itinerary in the East as well as the West tradition, where the word moves from silence to silence (from where the word emerges) towards a falling into empty space, and in that way, affirms that the poetic image of the emptiness present of Blanco is an emptiness that is not the absence or elimination of reality, but a founding base in where reality is transfigured and harmonized.

Keywords:

“Blanco”, Nothingness, Ground, Mysticism, Octavio Paz