La oficina de la nada

The "office of nothingness" is Miguel de Molinos' expression chosen as a metaphor for this book: a space in which numerous literary and visual works produced mainly in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 20th century are gathered, analyzed and classified. XXI century that try to represent, materialize or produce the effect of nothing. Each chapter unfolds a sequence of recurring motifs, supports and strategies that have emerged in the field of narrative, poetry and digital literature, artist's books and conceptual art. As can be seen, these gestures, sometimes serious and profound, other times absurd and ironic, lay bare the cultural, political and economic structures on which what we still understand as aesthetic experience is based. The filing cabinets in this office also house a surprisingly rich tradition both in creative experimentation and in philosophical and religious reflections, particularly negative theology. Thus, a broader and more complex framework of understanding is offered in which the ineffability of the mystical experience overlaps with the tensions of language and representation in contemporary negative poetics.