Salvador Espriu's Idea of a Theater: The Sotjador Versus the Demiurge

Abstract

Dramatic literature has made a substantial contribution toward the impressive resurgence that Catalan culture has manifested since the Renaixenfa of the early nineteenth century. N ames like Frederic Soler, alias Serafi Pitarra (1839-1895), Apel.les Mestres (1854-1936), Santiago Rusiftol (1861 - 1931), Ignasi Iglesias (1871-1928), Adria Gual (1872-1943), Angel Guimera (1874-1924), and JosepMaria de Sagarra (1894-1961) attest to the halcyon days of a tradition which, despite the vicissitudes and dire circumstances of more recent times, persists among a select group of Catalan men and women devoted, against all disheartening odds, to a theater conceived and enacted in their native language. To be sure, the existence of an authentic Catalan theater in the second half of the twentieth century can only be described as precarious; it has survived only by virtue of strenuous effort. During the last four decades only a few plays written in Catalan have reached the printer's shop and even fewer have attained an ephemeral run on the boards.