The Theatre of Antonio Buero Vallejo: Ideology, Politics and Censorship (Monografias A)

Description

This monograph examines the complex relationship between Antonio Buero Vallejo [1916 - 2000] and the ideologies of Francoist and post-Franco Spain. The central focus of the study is Buero's political theatre and his employment of myth and history to challenge the notion of an Espa?a eterna. It also considers Buero's creation of his own myths and his revision of history in order to rationalize and justify his own stance. Censorship, both official and environmental, was the principal point of contact between writer and regime. The decisions made by Buero Vallejo in his determination to write and stage committed drama in a repressive society are evaluated here. Rejecting the more provocative stance of some other committed dramatists, as well as the position of those who resolved to ignore the political and social reality, Buero's choice, with its inherent contradictions and ambiguities, was posibilismo. This book looks at his pragmatic employment of language and silence, both in his art and in his dealings with the censors and with other representatives of the hegemony and analyses how posibilismo both aided and limited him. The monograph also gives an account of Buero's post-Franco theatre, which to date has not received the attention that it merits. It examines the reasons for its initial negative reception and its renewed importance in today's Spain. In these days of digging up the past, Buero's post-Franco insistence on rejecting the pacto de olvido is perhaps more relevant now than ever before.