Naming and Namelessness in Jose Ruibal's La Maquina de Pedir

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is the introductory paragraph of the article. During the nearly forty-year regime of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, Spain's literary production entered a period of semi-dormancy occasioned by severe limitations of censorship and repression of creative energies, particularly in the area of the theater.1 While theaters, especially in Madrid, were economically solvent and successful, the dramatic offerings presented onstage in the main afforded audiences inoffensive fare of bourgeois superficiality with scant, or virtually no probing of the complex realities of post-Civil War Spain.2 Writers who remained in Spain following the devastation were constrained to a depiction of the anodyne situations of urban life, while those who accepted forced, or self-imposed exile, found limited access in foreign lands- even in Latin America- for the staging of their productions. While repertory theaters were to be found in major capitals like Buenos Aires, Santiago and Havana, impresarios were more interested in mounting productions of the classics or translations of tested European dramatists than in offering their audiences the novel creations of a new generation of Spanish playwrights. One writer whose career has suffered the vicissitudes of mid-twentieth century Spanish history is Jose Ruibal.