Valle-Inclán’s Theatrical Legacy: Myth, Farce, and Grotesque
Valle-Inclán: A Theatrical Revolution
Ramón María del Valle-Inclán is arguably the most complex and exciting writer of the twentieth century. He was a writer too modern for his time. His theater was so new and unknown to the public that it was kept away from the Spanish scene for over forty years. Valle-Inclán invented a new form of drama and a new conception of the stage. He advanced to the new European theater, the theater of the absurd, and avant-garde theater, pursuing technical, formal, and thematic renovation.
Valle-Inclán melds in his work the grotesque, the Galician region, religion, eroticism, death, and illness. Tragedy, the grotesque, and farce were to become key elements of his vision of the great theater of the world.
Valle-Inclán’s Theatrical Cycles
His plays can be divided into three cycles:
- Mythic Cycle: The three Comedias Bárbaras and Divinas Palabras (Divine Words)
- Farce Cycle: La Marquesa Rosalinda (The Marchioness Rosalinda) and the three works that comprise Tablado de Marionetas para Educación de Príncipes (Puppet Stage for the Education of Princes)
- Grotesque Cycle: Luces de Bohemia (Bohemian Lights) and Martes de Carnaval (Carnival Tuesday), which includes: Los Cuernos de Don Friolera (The Horns of Don Friolera), Las Galas del Difunto (The Deceased’s Finery), and La Hija del Capitán (The Captain’s Daughter)
The remaining works of Valle-Inclán would not be integrated into any of these cycles. These are works such as El Marqués de Bradomín (The Marquis of Bradomín) or puppet melodramas.
Evolution of Valle-Inclán’s Style
Valle-Inclán initially rejected immediate reality and turned his gaze to the Middle Ages. Later, he turned his attention to this reality, employing a grotesque, violent distortion and an aggressive mood. In his plays, he uses the so-called “top-down perspective.” This involves creating some distance between the work and the public to achieve a critical view.
Valle-Inclán was an anachronistic playwright: ancient in his early farces and comedies and too modern in his esperpentos.
Mythic Cycle: Comedias Bárbaras
Among his many plays, we will discuss the mythic cycle: the Comedias Bárbaras, which form a single continuous action that begins with Cara de Plata (Silver Face) (written fifteen years later than the other two), Águila de Blasón (Eagle Crest), and Romance de Lobos (Wolves’ Ballad).
The three are a perfectly structured drama. Each piece would be an act. It tells the story and tragic end of the Montenegro family. It is a rural tragedy that includes fighting between brothers and fighting between brothers and their father. We see a world of primeval, elemental, and unleashed violent passions, where the prevailing laws of inheritance, vice, and superstition reign. These three works reflect the collapse of the Galician feudal world. The main features are represented in the figure of Don Juan Manuel Montenegro, who will end up dying at the hands of his own children.
Farce Cycle: La Marquesa Rosalinda
In the farce cycle, the grotesque and poetry appear united. In La Marquesa Rosalinda, the characters are those of the commedia dell’arte and the Golden Age. Valle-Inclán is ironic about the theater from within the theater itself and moves between historical and modern fantasy. He will see Modernism as impossible, and thus arrives at the esperpento, the theater’s most important invention in the twentieth century.
Grotesque Cycle and the Esperpento
Valle-Inclán first used the term “esperpento” to describe Luces de Bohemia. He then applied this term to three other pieces.
The concept of esperpento was refined over time. Valle-Inclán tried to explain what the esperpento was in various texts, such as in scene XII of Luces de Bohemia, in the dialogue between Max Estrella and Don Latino.
We can say that the esperpento is a term chosen by Valle-Inclán to designate a form of theater and a vision of human life represented from a distorting lens of reality. For Valle-Inclán, the tragic sense of Spanish life can only be expressed with a systematically distorted look. He cited Cervantes and Quevedo as forerunners of his aesthetic.
Characteristics of the Esperpento
- The grotesque as a means of expression
- Distortion of reality: a caricature of the real
- Dual code: under the apparent tone of mockery and caricature of reality lies a meaning-laden social satire
- Use of resources and violent contrasts, death as a fundamental character, muñequización (puppetization), etc.
All of Valle-Inclán’s esperpentos share common features in terms of themes, structure, and resources. An important element is history; Valle-Inclán was very interested in the Carlist Wars, the Elizabethan period, the wars in Cuba and Morocco, and the Mexican Revolution. Other recurring themes are the myths inherited from the tradition of the honor myth, the myth of Don Juan, and social problems.