La metáfora de la llaga en Søren Kierkegaard y Miguel de Unamuno: la importancia del sufrimiento en la existencia auténtica

Abstract

This article examines the use of the metaphor of the wound in the work of Kierkegaard and Unamuno and suggests a substantial link between them. The image is one of an open wound that is not permitted to be healed for significant reasons, detailed and explained within the article. For both authors, the wound represents the depth of suffering necessary for authentic existence. However, Kierkegaard and Unamuno are not in agreement about the nature of suffering or about the ultimate ends that it serves. These differing, ultimate ends reveal different values that the two authors hold with regard to the fundamental goals of human life. For Unamuno, the ultimate purpose of suffering is to increase consciousness so that the individual may recognize the eternal and the beautiful more adequately. For Kierkegaard, suffering plays a key role in the transformation of the individual so that the person may become the person that God wants him or her to be.