Ramón del Valle-Inclán's Grotesque: A Deep Dive into Spanish Literature

Ramón del Valle-Inclán's Grotesque: A Deep Dive

Characteristics of Absurdity in Valle-Inclán's Work

Key characteristics of absurdity in Valle-Inclán's work include:

• The Grotesque as a Means of Expression: Deformation of reality through caricature.
• Double Code: Beneath the apparent tone of mockery lies a meaning-laden, satirical social intent.
• Use of Violent Contrasts: Death as a fundamental character, "muñequización" (treating characters like puppets), and other contrasting elements.

All of Valle-Inclán's "esperpentos" share common features in terms of themes, structure, and resources. An important element is the historical context; Valle was particularly 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 honor, the myth of Don Juan, and social problems. Valle uses elements of farce and puppetry. Distortion is achieved by merging the human with the animal, dream with reality, and reducing figures to simple masks and puppets with human behavior.

Also noteworthy is the collective character. The characters are exaggerated and distorted by a combination of physical and psychological traits, and a blurring of profiles due to a certain chaos.

Grotesque Works

Bohemian Lights (1920)

Bohemian Lights was published serially in 1920 in the journal Spain. The work is related more to cinema than theater (Valle thinks cinematically, even for the time) due to its plasticity and movement, contrasts of light and shadow, and the comings and goings of the characters through the streets of Madrid. The work is composed of fifteen scenes. The structure is circular: in the first twelve scenes, we witness the journey of the poet Max Estrella through Madrid and his death, and in the last three, we observe events immediately after his death.

The play takes place in Madrid, in multiple scenarios: the tavern, the coffee shop, the street, and the police station. The themes of death, suicide, and religion stand out. The central problem is the lack of values in Spanish society, exemplified in a series of environments and individual behaviors. In this work, Valle mixes humor and sarcasm with harsh reality. People are criticized for having no purpose or illusions about the future (there is a reformist desire).

Valle criticizes all of society. The author makes fun of the bohemians, the administration, literary contests, trams, comedy, and academic lessons. Scene XII stands out because Valle defines what the grotesque is. In this scene, Valle uses the concave mirrors of Madrid's Callejón del Gato as a resource to explain the deformation. The "esperpento" (which Valle defined as a "queer genre") is about finding the funny side in the tragedy of life. Men are seen as puppets, humans are animalized, objects come alive, and language is distorted.

In short, with this work, we are facing an enormous tragedy at both the collective level (the state) and the individual level (the death of a poet and the suicide of his wife and daughter). Although the characters live a tragic moment, they are not able to see it because they lack moral values. Regarding language, Valle blends Greek and Latin voices, mythological and literary references, loanwords from French, words from Madrid where lending is stalled, hyper-cultisms, Galician voices, Americanisms, neologisms ("Abich"), and slang lexicon.

Don Friolera's Horns

Don Friolera's Horns is perhaps the most successful "esperpento." It is a grotesque take on the Calderonian honor drama. Valle offers three parallel versions of the same events, theorizing about theater and the grotesque.

Late on the Theme of the Trickster

In Galas, Valle revisits the theme of the trickster, turning Guster Juanito into a poor victim of reality.

The Captain's Daughter

The Captain's Daughter is a violent speech against the military uprisings so prevalent at the time (the last being the military coup of Primo de Rivera).