Ramon Maria Del Valle-Inclan: Questions of Gender

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.