This is a study of the Spanish dramatist RamØn del Valle-Inclan (1866-1936). John Lyon shows that Valle has links with two avant-garde movements: the turn of the century Symbolism associated with Maeterlinck and Yeats, and the anti-tragic values which surfaced in the 1920s and culminated in Absurdism.

The plays studied in this book constitute veritable landmarks in the affirmation of the dramatic voice of Spanish playwright Ramon del Valle-Inclan. The three plays, as this study shows, prove crucial to the development of a theatre of unparalleled innovative force in the annals of twentieth-century Spanish letters.

There follows an up-to-date bibliography of the plays, from editions contemporary with the author through those published posthumously; it includes translations of the dramas into many languages, as well as a selection of critical studies worldwide."--Jacket.

Written in the early 1920s, Lights of Bohemia is set in the twilight phase of Madrid's bohemian artistic life against the turbulent social and political background of events between 1900 and 1920.

Las galas del difunto/ The Dead Man's Finery (1926) and La hija del capitán/ The Captain's Daughter (1927) are two of four tragic farceswritten by Ramón del Valle-Inclán for the theatre. Translated here for the first time into English, the plays demonstrate the dramatist's evolving theory of the esperpento as a satirical genre.

"This book is a collection of eleven essays devoted to the work of Ramon del Valle-Inclan (1866-1936). Long the recipient of critical analyses from various perspectives, Valle-Inclan's writing has nevertheless been virtually neglected in the gender-based criticism that has given rise to important studies of his contemporaries in other European literatures. This means that his diverse female characters have not been fully examined, that many scholars continue to consider him an unqualified misogynist, and that a marked effort to surmount gender constraints, present throughout his work, has not been acknowledged, much less explicated. This lack of study is intimately related to a much broader lacuna in Hispanic literature and scholarship, for the working of gender norms and their interaction with economic, religious, and political institutions inscribed in the literature of turn-of-the-century Spain have only recently begun to receive detailed study." "The essays in this volume identify, explore, and interrogate issues of gender with respect to Valle-Inclan's writing. The results offer an altered portrait of Valle-Inclan in which attitudes attributed to him are questioned and reevaluated. In particular, studies of several strong female characters indicate that he envisioned a far more complex role for women than has formerly been recognized." "Three previously published essays were chosen to provide a grounding in work on gender and Valle-Inclan. The remaining essays were written for this volume. As an orientation for the reader and in order to assure that the collection will be of use and interest to non-Hispanists as well as specialized readers, an introduction to the collection defines the intentions of the editors, discusses the essays with respect to current criticism, and places Valle-Inclan and his writing in turn-of-the-century Spanish history and aesthetics. As a whole, the collection reads as far more than the sum of its individual essays, prompting a fuller appreciation of both Valle-Inclan and the social and cultural system to which he belongs."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Among the great figures of European modernism, Ramón Maria del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936) remains relatively unknown and unappreciated outside his native Spain. His large and diverse oeuvre includes prose, poetry, drama as well as critical and journalistic essays. His deeply personal belletristic style evolved from the symbolist aesthetic to the more mature variant of expressionism of his output in the 1920s and '30s, which he termed esperpento. This volume presents translations of his dramatic trilogy Comedias Bárbaras (Savage Comedies), consisting of Cara de plata (Golden Boy, 1922), Águila de blasón (The Blazoned Eagle, 1907) and Romance de Lobos (Wolves Rampant, 1908), together with notes and an introduction that will provide readers with historical and biographical context.