Lope de Aguirre According to Torrente Ballester: A Falangist Representation of the Spanish Revolution

Guardiola M.P. · Revista Letral (2022) · DOI: 10.30827/rl.vi28.21130

Resumen

This paper analyses both the biography and the drama written by the Spanish writer Gonzalo Torrente Ballester on the conquistador and rebel Lope de Aguirre. Despite his break with conservative historical drama and his complex portrait of the hero, his critique of Francoism, defended by some scholars, is hardly significant. Instead, [this paper highlights how both works adhered to the Francoist vision of the republican and socialist forces defeated in the recent Civil War. This interpretation is based on the structure of, and several key fragments from, the works, and in the comparison with other contemporary critical and literary texts by Torrente, as well as with two important Falangist novels of that time: Eugenio o la proclamación de la primavera by Rafael García Serrano, and Madrid de corte a checa by Agustín de Foxá.

Instituciones: Universidad de Piura