José Cadalso’s Noches Lúgubres: The Possibility of Night to Unveil the Other

Abstract

Considering José Cadalso’s Noches Lúgubres [Lugubrious Nights], the article reflects on the possibilities of
recognizing the other as a condition for an effective process of alterity. In Tediato, the main character and who
is plunged into darkness, it is possible to recognize an existential condition pushed to the limit, which needs the
presence of the other to unveil another possibility of meaning. A reunion with oneself is, then, the condition for an
opening to the other, which appears as a new existential possibility because the vital meaning of existence depends
largely on our relationship with others. Hence, the relevance of understanding that human beings become human
as long as they have the ability of coming out of themselves to give themselves without reciprocity.