Valle-Inclán's Literary Evolution: From Modernism to Esperpento

Valle-Inclán's Literary Trajectory

Despite the traditional partition of Valle-Inclán's literary career into two stages—the first modern and the second grotesque—the dividing line is not clear because his evolution is not linear but recurring and simultaneous. His origins are modernists, evident since his first book and also in his Sonatas.

The Modernist Origins: The Sonatas

The four Sonatas are the sentimental and literary memory of the Marquis of Bradomín, a "Don Juan ugly, Catholic, and sentimental." They represent the best prose of Hispanic Modernism.

Stylistic Evolution and Generic Indeterminacy

This phase is followed by the cycle of the Comedia Bárbara, including Águila de blasón (Eagle Crest) and Romance de lobos (Romance of Wolves), set in the rural Galician environment, featuring strange characters. The first stylistic evolution is emphasized in the trilogy of the Carlist War, where Valle stresses the romantic heroism of the Carlists and the brutality of war. Certain innovations appear here, the most important being the generic indeterminacy between novel and drama.

The Birth of Esperpento (1910-1920)

From 1910, Valle-Inclán unveiled some of the aesthetic concepts that would become key in his writing: "vision from a height" and "harmony of opposites." These ideas are explored in La lámpara maravillosa (The Magic Lamp), an essay on aesthetic concepts that materialize in Luces de Bohemia (Bohemian Lights).

The year 1920 was pivotal in the author's path. In that year, he published four critical plays:

• Farsa italiana de la enamorada del rey (Italian Farce of Love with the King)
• Farsa y licencia de la Reina Castiza (Farce and License of the Castiza Queen)
• Divinas palabras (Divine Words)
• Luces de Bohemia (Bohemian Lights)

Defining the Esperpento

Grotesque distortion is present in these works, especially in the last two, but it is Luces de Bohemia that gives Valle-Inclán the name esperpento. This word refers to those works in which the tragic and the farcical are mixed.

Later Grotesque Works: Mardi Gras and Novels

Three major esperpentos were written in the following years, later mentioned under the common title of Mardi Gras:

• Los cuernos de Don Friolera (Don Friolera's Horns) (1921)
• Las galas del difunto (The Late Man's Finery) (1926)
• La hija del capitán (The Captain's Daughter) (1927)

The novels of this later period are also defined by the author as "grotesque," notably Tirano Banderas and the cycle of El ruedo ibérico (The Iberian Arena).

The Grotesque Aesthetic

Historical Background

The most distant influences, noted by Valle-Inclán himself, are Goya and Quevedo. Goya, with his Caprichos, and Quevedo, with his burlesque sonnets. Closer influences can be found in European Expressionist theater and also in the "literature of the suburbs," characterized by short plays that parodied serious dramas, whose most famous work is La Golfemia, a parody of Puccini's opera.

Defining Features of Deformation

Valle-Inclán theorizes about deformation, especially in Scene XII of Luces de Bohemia. Max Estrella and Latino de Hispalis dialogue after a terrible night, laying the groundwork for the grotesque theory. They theorize about the absurdity of power using the distorting mirrors of the Callejón del Gato (Cat's Alley), which links the aesthetic concept with the political situation.

On the one hand, the aesthetic principle states: "The classic heroes reflected in the concave mirrors are the grotesque." That is, the degradation of heroes is at the base of the esperpento. The deformation ceases to be subject to a mathematical perfection. Furthermore, Valle-Inclán asserts that "Spain is a grotesque deformation of European civilization," and only an aesthetic of the grotesque can reflect that pathetic reality.