Leopoldo Alas “Clarín”, entre la tradición áurea y la innovación naturalista

Authors

  • Mariano Nicolás Saba Universidad de Buenos Aires; CONICET

Abstract

As a privileged critic of the late nineteenth century, Leopoldo Alas “Clarín” shows in his views about the Golden Age theatre certain inevitable tension between tradition and innovation. An accurate analysis reveals in that issue the functionality of metaphors related to semantic field of “disease”. Such images -in line with some contemporary judgments of Pardo Bazán- illustrate the significant tension between the national literary canon and foreign advent of naturalistic experimentation. Rhetorical forms of that clash can be found precisely in the overlapping of Clarín’s readings on the drama of the Spanish Empire and metaphors of disease, often present in the fictional naturalism.

Keywords:

Leopoldo Ala, Golden Age theater, naturalism, Nineteenth Century critics