Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Pepita. There is, to be sure, a level of psy-
chological insight into the minds of his
characters for which Valera has been duly
praised; however, Valera, for all the grace
and warmth of his Andalusian settings,
seems afflicted by an emotional distance
not only from his subject matter, but from
his era and the “new Spain” that was
emerging during his lifetime.
or biographical data. Even his name was
partially invented. His manner, dress, and
physical appearance were all distinctive
and exaggerated, less from eccentricity of
mind than from the self-dramatizing
impulses of the poseur. Everyone in M
ADRID
knew Don Ramón, with his long straggly
beard and hair, his archaic outfits, and his
perennial cape.
Valle-Inclán's literary position is also
difficult to pin down. Influenced in his
early days by French symbolism and later
regarded as an exponent of modernism, he
has also been considered a proponent of
Galician regional culture and an embit-
tered critic of post-1898 Spanish national
decline (although not all critics agree in
associating him with the G
ENERATION
OF
'98). In an early group of novels collec-
tively known as
Sonatas
(1902-05) the
author combines intense sensuality with
an archaic elegance of style that reveals his
mastery of the Spanish language. Ever
impatient with subject matter and
approaches, Valle-Inclán went through a
series of absurdist and bitterly satirical
prose writings, indulged in a number of
plays notable for their unsparing deca-
dence of subject matter, and in 1926 pro-
duced what some critics regard as his finest
novel,
Tirano Banderas
(
The Tyrant
)—which
others do not accept as a novel at all, but
rather a loosely connected set of short sto-
ries. This portrayal of the progressive
degeneration of a Mexican political leader
and the ruin that it brings upon his people
is remarkable for its mastery of Mexican
vocabulary and setting. A fascinating com-
bination of artistic genius and emotionally
unstable decadence, Valle-Inclán is one of
the most interesting but difficult figures
among modern Spanish literary artists.
Valladolid
This modern industrial city in central Spain
was formerly the capital of C
ASTILE
and the
residence of the Spanish royal court from
1454 to 1598. Its points of interest, includ-
ing churches dating back to the 12th cen-
tury and the house where C
HRISTOPHER
C
OLUMBUS
died, reflect a historical experi-
ence that culminates in a 17th-century pal-
ace. As Spanish monarchs and their
courtiers transferred their activities to
M
ADRID
, some 100 miles to the southeast,
Valladolid was forced into a political decline
and is now principally known as a center of
light industry.
Valle-Inclán, Ramón María del
(1866-1936)
Spanish writer
One of the most picturesque figures among
Spanish writers, this native of G
ALICIA
prac-
ticed law, lived the bohemian life in Paris,
traveled through M
EXICO
, and was at vari-
ous times an estate manager, a teacher, a
cattle rancher, and a revolutionary. He was
imprisoned for a time for his opposition to
the dictator P
RIMO
DE
R
IVERA
and held vari-
ous offices under the Second Republic.
There was little about Valle-Inclán, how-
ever, that could be reduced to prosaic facts
Search WWH ::
Custom Search