Bohemian Lights

Bohemian Lights, or Luces de Bohemia in the original Spanish, is a play written by Ramón del Valle-Inclán, published in 1924. The central character is Max Estrella, a struggling poet afflicted by blindness. The play is a degenerated tragedy (esperpento) focusing on the troubles of the literary and artistic world in Spain under the Restoration. Through Max's poverty, ill fortune and eventual death, Valle-Inclán portrays how society neglects the creative.

Bohemian Lights (Luces de Bohemia, in the original Spanish) is an esperpento (grotesque tragedy) by Ramón del Valle-Inclán. The play tells the tragic story of the blind poet Max Estrella as he wanders the streets of early twentieth-century Bohemian Madrid on the last night of his life. Esperpentos depict the world as tragicomedy and the actors as puppets helpless to their fates. The audience is asked to consider what is authentic and what is spectacle. Bohemian Lights is equal parts Realism and Expressionism.

Based on the playwright's experiences in Old Madrid, Bohemian Lights is described as an esperpento within an esperpento and is written in episodic format. In the introduction to the Edinburgh Bilingual Library edition of Luces de Bohemia, Anthony N. Zahareas describes the action as "…a modern, nocturnal odyssey about the frustration, death, and burial of a blind poet, Max Estrella that follows the Classic sense of tragedy of the human condition. Max's struggles highlight the general disregard for artists and the social typology in Spain during that time period.

Valle-Inclán portrays both the Bohemians and the members of the Establishment from a historical standpoint, neither praising nor condemning either group. Valle-Inclán juxtaposes the fictional life of Max Estrella and his family with historic events, such as the violent strikes of 1917 and the political arrests of 1919. Through this, Valle-Inclán makes a political statement about many of the controversial issues, both Spanish and international, of his time period: anarchy, revolution, law-of escape (ley de fugas), Lenin, Russia, the war, strikes, syndicates, and the press.

Bohemian Lights was initially serialized and published in a magazine, like many of Valle-Inclán's works. Due to censorship by the Spanish government, Bohemian Lights was not produced in Valle-Inclán's lifetime. It was first published in its entirety in 1920. A second version was published in 1924, with three additional scenes that added to the political statement of the piece: Scene 2, the discussion of Spanish realities versus absurdities in Zarathustra’s bookstore; Scene 6, the shooting of the Catalan prisoner; and Scene 11, the street gathering with the screaming mother.

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