Antonio Buero Vallejo's El Tragaluz

In what X considers to be transitional literature by ABV, ABV mixes science fiction with myth… The end result is a play that By virtue of complex technical devices, Antonio Buero Vallejo effectively portrayed the moral consequences of the Spanish civil war still present thirty years on in his drama El tragaluz. One of the most significant devices used by Buero Vallejo is the dramatization of time. This essay will examine Buero Vallejo’s use of temporality in unveiling the human condition and its demise, the impact of war on the family and what Buero considered the changing values of society in the wake of technological encroachment in the twentieth century.
On its premiere in Madrid in 1967, El tragaluz was very well received, particularly due to its ‘experimental’ structure and subtle criticism of the Franco regime, which were considered avant-garde for the time. The play calls for the audience to be propelled into the distant future and become observers of an experiment that is temporally based in the 1960s. Therefore, the audience members of the time were watching their contemporaries in the form of the main characters. The play is centered around three significant periods including the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, the mid-1960s, and the twenty-fifth century or thirtieth century. The main story line follows the turbulent relationship between two brothers who lead very different lives as a consequence of the civil war. The brothers are forced to confront the