Dance of the invisible: José Lezama Lima’s image theory

Abstract

This article explores the philosophical, aesthetic and historical bearings of the concept of ‘image’ in the works of the Cuban poet José Lezama Lima. Through the concept of ‘dance-image’, the first part of the article explains how Lezama Lima managed to set himself apart from Western metaphysics in order to develop a new approach to reality –a movement away from the traditional privilege given to the eye towards a sort of acoustic logic. The second part shows how this philosophical turn inaugurated a new interpretation of America that rivaled with Hegel’s History of the Spirit.