EXILE AND HORROR IN THE WORKS OF MARIA ZAMBRANO AND ADRIANA CAVARERO: AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ?GEDANKENEXPERIMENT? AND CONCEPT OF LIMIT

Exile is an autobiographic experience, as well as a theme of philosophical reflection in the works of Maria Zambrano. In this article I propose an interpretation of the figures of exile and the subject suffering exile that takes them as a Gedankenex-periment -that is an hypothetic and imaginative reasoning turning around a concrete example -that allows Zambrano to develop a philosophical argument within the frame of figurative language. The interpretation allows me to follow the circulation of the figures and the influence they had in the development of Italian bio-political philosophy, most prominently in the works of Adriana Cavarero. Further, I argue that the figures of the exile, and the subject suffering exile, are understood philosophically as a limit interior to the state in the works of both authors, and that this idea carries with it ethical consequences. I conclude that the method of writing figuratively is a conscious choice of style that aims at making the ethical stance found in the philosophical elaboration effective on the level of the text.