The aphorisms in the current Spanish literature. The ethical dimension of writing

Abstract

This paper focuses on the study of aphorisms in current Spanish literature, a genre that has expanded considerably in recent decades. On the basis of a review of the main theoretical problems arising in this form of writing ―such as its definition, its hybrid nature halfway between the philosophic and the poetic, and the extent of the knowledge they express― and then focusing on aphorisms with a moraland ethical content, this paper explores how this ethical substance or aspects concerns all three elements of literary communication, i.e. the author, the text/work, and the reader (Spang 1988). Aphorisms emerge at these three levels as a dynamic writing, challenging tradition andquestioning its value system, propounded as a subversive expression whose content is oriented towards an ethics of action. 

Keywords: aphorisms, ethics, tradition, rewriting, dynamism, action