I would like to explore the boundaries/limitations involved in applying
Brecht’s concept of gestus as a theoretical framework for an analysis of
Ramon del Valle-Inclan’s works, Bohemian Lights (Luces de bohemia) and
Mr. Punch the Cuckold (Los cuernos de don Friolera). Valle-Inclan’s (1866-1936)
search for a dramatic idiom that would enable him to express his particular
vision of Spain in the early twentieth century culminated with the creation
of a new dramatic genre, the esperpento. The Spanish writer was inspired
by the concave mirrors of amusement parks and made these the model for
the manner through which the warped morals and ideals of his contemporary
Spain would be reflected in his ‘esperpentic’ farces. But the esperpento
resists clear-cut classification: its unique claim to the distortion of
tragedy in order to foreground the grotesque dimension of Spain within
the frame of European culture establishes a self-referentiality which has
led to comparisons with the politicized theatre of Bertold Brecht. I propose
to discuss the implications of such comparisons, and whether one might
find a trace of the Brechtian gestus in Valle-Inclan’s farces.
05/27: 1400