The experience of the Civil War, World War II and the subsequent exile led Zambrano to conclude that there was a fundamental flaw in the way in which modern societies conceived of the relation between the individual and society. She turned against idealism and an ideal notion of subjectivity that she deemed to be the indirect cause of the wars. This chapter shows how Zambrano began developing on a new notion of subjectivity within the philosophical debate of ">Erkenntnistheorie. Against notions of ideal essentialism, she develops on an embodied and enmattered subject which is at the same time defined by its expressive capabilities. It is furthermore shown how drawing on notions of poetic creativity that Zambrano shared with the Cuban poets in the Orígenes group, she emphasized the heart and the soul as fundamental expressive functions.