Esperpento

Esperpento denotes a literary style in Spanish literature first established by Spanish author Ramón María del Valle-Inclán that uses distorted descriptions of reality in order to criticize society. Leading themes include death, the grotesque, and the reduction of human beings to objects (reification). The style is marked by bitter irony. In Latin America, the author most well known for using esperpento is Mexican author Jorge Ibargüengoitia.

According to the definition given by the most current edition of Diccionario de la Lengua Española (Dictionary of the Spanish Language) by the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE),esperpento is:

The Royal Spanish Academy first defined the term esperpento in the fourteenth edition of the DRAE (1914), where the first and third meanings above were accepted. Reference to the second sense first appeared in the supplement to the nineteenth edition (1970):

Literary genre created by Ramón del Valle-Inclán. It systematically deforms reality, emphasizing its grotesque and absurd traits, while at the same time degrading consecrated literary values. For this purpose, colloquial language is dignified for artistic purposes to allow cynical expressions and jargon.

This definition was maintained until the last edition, in which the reference to "consecrated literary values" was removed.

Esperpento first made its appearance as an authentic dramatic genre in the 1920 play Luces de Bohemia (Bohemian Lights) by Valle-Inclán. The conceptual metaphors in this theater genre were inspired by real locales; for example, the callejón del Gato (Gato Alley) in the play was inspired by the ironmongers' market in calle de Álvarez Gato (Álvarez Gato Street) in Madrid. The real street's most distinguishing feature was the advertising front, where a concave and a convex mirror hung, distorting the image of all those who passed by. The mirrors were used by Valle-Inclán as a metaphor in his plays and narratives.

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