The grotesque in Valle Inclán

Although there is a inseparable association between grotesque and Valle Inclán The truth is that this term is not exclusively used by the Spanish playwright, but rather that this word already existed previously, although its origin is not exactly known. Valle managed to define the concept and use it in his literary works, a task that he began in 1920 in both his plays and novels. Currently, the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) in its Dictionary accepts that the literary genre was created by Ramón del Valle Inclán and that, with him, a new stage was inaugurated where the grotesque and the absurd served as a reflection of the reality of Spain and of the human being.

In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to discover you the grotesque in Valle Inclán, a genre defined by the author in his masterpiece "Luces de bohemia" where the character Max Estrella is in charge of explaining it during the last minutes of his life.

Index

1. Sperpento: Full Definition
2. Valle inclán and the grotesque
3. The grotesque in Luces de bohemia

Before starting to talk about the relationship between the grotesque and Valle Inclán, it is essential that we understand the concept in order to know what we are talking about. When we talk about something being "grotesque" we mean that it has been degraded, it has been reified, it has become denatured. It is a technique that fixes on reality to make it show more grotesque, more cartoonish, with the aim of launching a critique of the world and society.

There are different ways to cultivate the grotesque: reify the characters, load a colloquialisms text, place the protagonists in bad environments reputation (brothels, casinos, etc.) and many other resources that have one objective: to show the hidden part in the human being but that, deep down, lives with him in his bowels.

So, if you ask yourself "What is the grotesque?", The answer is that it is a technique by which reality is distorted. In "Luces de bohemia", the work of Valle Inclán, we find a definition of grotesque that is very accurate because it indicates that it is a vision of reality as if it were reflected in a concave mirror; In this way, the result will not be the real one but will be a deformed, grotesque, tragicomic one. In this other lesson from a TEACHER we discover a summary by scenes of Bohemian Lights.

Thus, the grotesque is a distortion of reality that gives us back a grotesque vision of our world and even of ourselves. Out of the characteristics of the grotesque we highlight the following:

• Warp of reality: To achieve this, the author will use hyperbole and grotesque exaggeration, thus achieving a result that borders on the sad and the comic, that is, the tragicomedy
• Fusion of history and fiction: it is a key element of the grotesque since the author wants to offer a critique of the society in which lives and, therefore, makes use of some traditional elements of culture, folklore, history, etc
• Tragicomic works: the tragicomedy is the subgenre of the grotesque as they offer us a vision of reality, the human condition and history that moves on the fine thread between tragedy and comedy

Valle Inclán was the greatest exponent of the grotesque, a literary genre that presented a deformation of reality with the aim of criticizing the society of yesteryear. It was an aesthetic revolution because it broke with realism and promoted grotesque situations that produced laughter and tears at the same time. "Bohemian lights" was the work that started this genre and where we find the definition of grotesque.

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There are concepts that cannot be separated. The grotesque and Valle Inclán is one of them since this author was one of the maximum representatives of this aesthetic current that is described and defended in the Scene XII of Bohemian Lights. Here we find an authentic manifesto of this new concept where the characteristics are explained to us and the resources and mechanisms of this deformation are indicated.

The reason why Valle adheres to this aesthetic is because he believes that the Spanish tragedy is not something tragic, but rather it is something ridiculous, absurd, a deformed tragedy in relation to the tragedy suffered by other European countries. Therefore, the Spanish cannot use a genre like classical tragedy to describe their reality since it is used for heroes, sublime feats and heroic events. And Spain has none of this, so how can we talk about the country in a way that is closer to reality? Through deformed aesthetics, that is, the grotesque.

Valle decides to pass on to all the protagonists of his works, the heroes of his creations, in front of the concave mirror, the one that deforms and alters reality. Only in this way is it capable of reflecting the true current history of Spain and the characters or heroes that supposedly inhabit and rule the country. This is how the author introduces us to his protagonists as Juanito Ventolera ("The galas of the deceased") or Don Friolera ("The horns of Don Friolera").

The classical tragedy offered a vision of its heroes as if the author were on his knees and, therefore, their image was idealized, deified; in Shakespeare's tragedies, a standing vision was used, the author saw his heroes face to face and reflected his true essence, his naturalness. But Valle could not use any of these approaches to get closer to the reality of him and, therefore, he bet on a view from the air, from the heights and, therefore, a deformed and ridiculed vision. The characters lose their greatness and are at the command of the author who becomes a kind of puppeteer, therefore, dehumanizes the protagonists, objectifies them.

But the grotesque in Valle Inclán is not designed to simply laugh at society and show its most grotesque side rather, the author had a very clear will: to stir consciences by reflecting Spanish society in such a brutal way. He wants to create, with his works, shows that are between comical and disturbing.

Thus, the grotesque is not a literary style or technique but rather can be defined as a poetic, a way to create and place the characters of a literary work.

Discover here the brief biography of Valle Inclán and you will get a better understanding of the life and work of this great author.

To talk about grotesque in Valle Inclán We must refer to the work that started this aesthetic trend: Bohemian lights. This play stars Max Estrella, a bohemian who walks the streets of Madrid at night until, finally, he ends up dying at the door of his house. The spectator of this play will accompany Max on his last night in which we will meet with different environments and characters belonging to Spanish society and who, really, are very motley.

Among the characters that we meet during this walk we highlight a policeman, modernists, prostitutes, a minister, a journalist, etc. We will also locate ourselves in different areas of Madrid such as a tavern, the jail, the alleys... During this final walk, Max will talk about many things, reflect on contemporary events such as the Semana Tragic Barcelona, ​​the strikes of 1920 and other historical events seen from the perspective of this man finish.

But it is in the Scene XII of Bohemian Lights where we find the definition of the grotesque through the voice of the dying Max Estrella. In the last moments of him, Max speaks that the Spanish tragedy is not a classic tragedy but that it is deformed, it seems that it has been reflected in concave mirrors that deform the final result.

Here we find that Valle Inclán's resource with grotesque is an aesthetic procedure that uses the grotesque and distance (vision from above, as we have already said) to be able to distort reality; Only in this way can the truly absurd be found and society's personalities, historical events and sentiments as tragic as honor or homeland are demystified.

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