Bohemian Lights: A Grotesque Portrait of Spain

Posted on Oct 14, 2024 in Language

Light of Bohemia

1. Historical Context and its Reflection

Luces de Bohemia satirizes Spanish politics, society, and religion. It indicts the Spanish situation, using grotesque mirrors to deform aspects of Spanish reality. Valle-Inclán criticizes:

  • The imperial past (Philip II, El Escorial).
  • Spanish colonies in America, the Tragic Week (1909), the Russian Revolution (1917), and the 1917 Spanish crisis.
  • Varied political figures (e.g., “Maura, Death!”).
  • Bad government, ministerial corruption, capitalism, and bourgeois conformism.
  • Police repression, torture, and illegal detention.
  • Street revolts and worker revolution.
  • Bourgeois caricatures: the bookseller Zaratustra, the landlord Pica Lagartos, etc.
  • Traditional and empty religion.
  • Literary figures, schools, and institutions (e.g., Galdós).
  • The uselessness of bohemian life.

2. Literary Context (Modernism and the Generation of ’98)

Modernism seeks to reconcile diverse influences, combining Parnassianism, Symbolism, Impressionism, Aestheticism, and Mysticism. It blends traditionalism with exoticism and simple expression. In Spain, Modernism is a critical attitude against bourgeois norms, with intellectuals and artists rebelling against society.

The Generation of ’98, a group of writers, essayists, and poets, emerged alongside Modernism. They:

  • Focus on Spanish identity, distinguishing between the real and the false, the miserable and the apparent.
  • Express interest in and love for Castile.
  • Break classical literary molds, creating new forms (e.g., Valle-Inclán’s grotesque).
  • Use simple language close to the street, retrieving traditional words.
  • Embrace pessimism and favor Joaquín Costa’s regenerationism.

3. The Author: Ramón del Valle-Inclán

Valle-Inclán engaged with his time’s political and social problems. He protested Unamuno’s exile in 1923 and was arrested in 1929 for writings during the dictatorship. His play The Captain’s Daughter was banned. His literary career has five periods:

  1. Modernist Cycle
  2. Mythical Cycle (works rooted in his native Galicia)
  3. Farce Cycle (works combining sentimentality and grotesque, characters as puppets)
  4. Grotesque Cycle (deforming and distorting reality through parody, humanizing animals/objects, and objectifying/animalizing humans)
  5. Final Cycle (emphasizing the irrational and instinctive, with dehumanized characters)

His work consistently critiques the bourgeois class, demonstrates innovative zeal by keeping up with European trends, and perfects language in prose and verse.

4. Luces de Bohemia

Publication

Published in installments in España magazine in 1920, then as a book in 1924 with variations and additions (Scenes II, VI, and XI), intensifying the caricature and critique.

Plot

Max Estrella learns his chronicles won’t be published. He visits Zaratustra’s bookshop, then sells his cloak for a lottery ticket. He encounters modernists and is arrested after making a joke to a guard. In jail, he discusses the worker’s plight with a Catalan separatist. Modernist poets criticize the police’s treatment of Max. The minister frees Max and promises a salary. At Café Colón, Darío advises Max to abandon bohemian life. Max and Don Latino encounter prostitutes. Don Latino abandons a sick Max, stealing his wallet. Claudinita confronts Don Latino. Rubén Darío and the Marquis de Bradomín discuss death. Don Latino celebrates winning the lottery while learning of Max’s family’s suicide.

Title

The title is ironic, referring to bohemian life’s ephemeral glow against Spain’s dark panorama. Light is a key scenic element, contrasting with the shadows present in all scenes.

5. Themes and Subtopics

  • The sordid side of bohemian life (Max Estrella’s death), poverty, and social marginalization.
  • Criticism of Spanish society: lack of patriotism, the Black Legend since Philip II.
  • Grotesque elements: suicide, blindness.
  • The pervasiveness of death.
  • Social marginality: Max’s interactions with prostitutes and criminals.

6. External Structure

Fifteen scenes in various locations. Serialized in España and reworked in 1924. Annotations describe non-verbal aspects for stage representation. Denotative language with literary figures serves both literary and pragmatic functions.

7. Internal Structure

  1. Presentation (Scene I): Introduction of the protagonist’s context.
  2. Development (Scenes II-XI): Max’s journey through Madrid.
  3. Outcome (Scene XII): Max’s return home and death; the theory of absurdity.
  4. Epilogue (Scenes XIII-XV): Closure with circularity.

8. Setting

Action takes place in various locations, with Scenes III and XV (Pica Lagartos Tavern) and Scenes I and XIII (Max’s attic) sharing locations. Real Madrid spaces are transformed into dramatic settings. The play unfolds in a nonsensical, brilliant, and hungry Madrid, with the street holding particular importance.

9. Time

  • Action spans just over 24 hours.
  • Historical and literary references from different periods are included.
  • The work covers 1913-1920, referencing the 1917 general strike and the Catalan’s imprisonment for refusing to fight in Morocco.

10. The Esperpento (Characteristics)

  • Grotesque as expression: mixing real-world and nightmare.
  • Systematic distortion of reality: highlighting societal contradictions.
  • Double code: ridicule and caricature with a deeper moral lesson.
  • Presenting the extraordinary as normal.
  • Death as a fundamental character.
  • Equalizing pomposity: animalization and objectification.
  • Dehumanization: characters as insensitive objects.
  • Violent and sarcastic language.
  • Formal freedom.