Mujer, Historia Y Sociedad: La Dramaturgia Femenina De La Espana Contemporánea

Abstract

This study examines contemporary Spanish women's theatre through three main inseparable themes: woman, history and society. Written from a feminine perspective, the works discussed contest a canonical History which marks the dawning of western civilization. It is then that the Judeo-Christian religion and ancient Greek thought create foundational "sins" which relegate woman to a condition of inferiority. Within a patriarchal structure, she is confined to a private sphere of action. Consequently, a public female presence implies adopting "masculine" values and any possibility of an autobiographical life is thus sacrificed. The woman who dares oppose patriarchal authority becomes, in the context of twentieth-century Spain, a symbol of a people in ideological confrontation with the authorities in power and condemned to a real or figurative death. The prologue to the Civil War is grounded in a conflict of class, with rural areas pitted against central government and proletariat against bourgeoisie. The war itself, together with the postwar period until General Franco's death, constitute an ideological confrontation portrayed through the principal foci of action and from within the prison. The end of the conflict only comes with the restoration of democracy in Spain, a period which coincides with an increasing sociocultural awareness regarding the situation of women. On the one hand, the works analysed reflect this awareness of woman as a class in accordance with Marxist-feminist thought. On the other hand, they are witness to an internal process, which the woman experiences as an individual, and through which she gradually becomes an autonomous subject. The political changes wrought in Spain in 1975 bring about new concerns, arising particularly from irreconcilable differences between the manner in which the country presents itself and its daily reality. The works pertaining to post-Francoist society denounce a resistance to change on the part of State and cultural structures. This study analyses these concerns within the context of sociopolitical hopes and aspirations leading up to the threshold of the twenty-first century.