Summary
Ramon del Valle-Inclan: Lights of Bohemia - esperpento
In dramatic form, this work depicts a Dante-esque journey, the nocturnal wanderings of Max Estrella, a blind poet of odes and madrigals, who is led by his alter ego Don Latino de Hispalis around Madrid bookstores, taverns, brothels, cafes..., until he dies at the door of his own house. Many of the characters you meet here are inspired by real people of that era. The entire work is permeated with quotes from various authors or public figures, and since there is a disproportion between the characters and the words they utter, the result is a parody, and oscillates between the tragic and the funny, that is, the grotesque. This work marked the emergence of a new literary genre, esperpenta, whose name comes from a Spanish word from the vernacular, and signifies a new view of the environment from the perspective of literature, one that leans towards the funny and ugly, on the edge of the grotesque.
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