El triunfo del demiurgo. Acerca de Muerte sin fin de José Gorostiza

Abstract

The author describes the numerological structure of one of the Mexican poems making the most important contribution to universal literature: Muerte sin fin (Unending Death). After analyzing the historical-social context giving rise to the production of this text and situating the poem within a Hispanic tradition with thematic and formal universalistic aspirations, a tradition that, despite post-revolutionary nationalism, resisted local coloring dating from medieval Europe, Alberto Pérez-Amador uncovers a far more profound philosophical tradition in the biblical metaphors and twin guiding lines of the poem: divine and human intelligence. Each of the poem’s parts are jointly and separately explained to reveal the limitations imposed by human language when striving to comprehend and explain the world.