Ontological Premise and Postmodern Coincidence in Unamuno's Theatre

Unamuno: La Esfinge y La venda. ¿Una modernidad...

38 La electricidad, que hizo tan atractivas las escenificaciones de Antoine, en París, revoluciona las escenificaciones. ONTOLOGICAL PREMISE AND 39 Contemporáneas de las primeras obras de Unamuno son POSTMODERN COINCIDENCE IN las empresas de Paul Fort en su Théâtre d’Art, de Lugné-Poe en su Théâtre de l’œuvre, de Craig, de Appia, incluso de Adrià Gual UNAMUNO’S THEATRE: en su Teatre íntim. Muy pronto vendrán Meyerhold, Max Rein - RAQUEL ENCADENADA, EL OTRO, hardt… Modelos no faltan. 40 Hacia 1900, según mis cálculos, los géneros cortos ocupan AND EL HERMANO JUAN O EL 75% de los títulos representados y entre 80 y 90% de las repre - MUNDO ES TEATRO sentaciones. Esta ley de la oferta y de la taquilla rentable explica (en parte) la dificultad de imponer alternativas teatrales en España. Unamuno no solo no va al teatro sino que desconoce John P. Gabriele visiblemente el panorama de los espectáculos de su propia ciu - The College of Wooster dad (Salamanca) que él pretende a salvo de los excesos del teatro comercial y su público “adocenado” y “bestial” (hacia 1907). En “Je est un autre” el solo mes de febrero de 1901, en Salamanca, se dieron 23 estre - Arthur Rimbaud nos de zarzuelas y sainetes, una obra larga ( Electra , de Galdós) y 14 espectáculos de variedades. The focus of Miguel de Unamuno’s (1864-1936) theatre 41 “Lo más sencillo posible, desnudo, sobrio”, en De vuelta al teatro , TC , p. 1390. is part and parcel the drama of being. The Spanish author 42 F. Ruiz Ramón, op. cit ., p. 79. rejects external realism in his plays. He does not treat 43 En el “Exordio” a Fedra , comenta su visión del “desnudo political, social, or historical themes nor do his characters 96 trágico” como paso hacia un “renovado arte dramático clásico, grapple with issues of a political, social, or historical escueto, desnudo, sin perifollos, arrequives, postizos y pegotes nature. Their struggle is fundamentally existential and teatrales u oratorios”, TC , p. 446. Unamuno has but one objective, to represent the inner tur - 44 Copeau seduce en España (a Lorca, Rivas Cherif, Max moil of his protagonists on the stage at all cost. Aub…) porque, al contrario de otros directores modernos que lo Unamuno’s plays are more essayistic in style and form apuestan todo a la escena, restaura el papel principal del autor y del texto dramático: cosa que satisface a los dramaturgos ibéri - than they are theoretically, contextually, and structurally cos, incluso los más avanzados como Lorca y Alberti, para quie - informed by the medium of theatre. Fernando Lázaro Car - nes el texto y “la autoría” son categorías primeras e irrevocables. reter, Gullermo de Torre (200-24), Andrés Franco (285-99 ), 45 Citado por Josep Lluís Sirera, en su “Estudio introductorio” Donald Shaw, David Roberston, Gwynne Edwards (7-8), a Max Aub, Primer teatro , Obras completas , Vol. VII, Biblioteca and Derek Gagen are among the critics who have repeat - Valenciana, Generalitat Valenciana, Valencia, 2002, p. 21. edly underscored to what degree Unamuno’s plays are 46 T.C ., pp. 65-66. 47 essentially anti-dramatic and lack authentic theatrical Unamuno dijo una vez que “era sordo para la música”. No appeal. Critics agree that Unamuno’s shortcomings as a parece tampoco que sea un “visual”. playwright are the direct result of his excessively schemat - ic approach to the genre. There is no “mejor definición del drama de Unamuno,” according to Spanish theatre histo - rian Francisco Ruiz Ramón, than “la de drama esquemático ” because, as Ruiz Ramón explains, “el dramaturgo Unamu - no no recorre entero el camino que va del esquema diná - mico de la acción a la realización teatral de ese esquema, es decir, no cumple con las operaciones propias a la creación dramática que permiten al esquema convertirse en pieza teatral” (80). Ontological Premise and Postmodern... John P. Gabriele

All drama is, to quote Martin Esslin, “a form of thought, ly termed a sense of “self-less-ness” (19). The author uses a cognitive process, a method by which we can translate a variety of situations and concepts to realize his objective. abstract concepts into concrete human terms or by which In La venda (1899), for example, the exploration of being we can set up a situation and work out its consequences” plays itself out in the conflict between Don Pedro and Don (23). In Unamuno’s case, the “abstract concepts” on which Juan and their opposing views about faith and reason. In his dramaturgy is founded do not result in coherently El pasado que vuelve (1910), Unamuno turns to the dialectic developed situations through which the “consequences” between materialism and idealism to achieve his objective. are worked out. His works are so overwhelmingly driven Angel’s tragic search for true spiritual meaning in La esfin - by his ideas that there is very little that lends itself to ge (1898), Agustín’s inability to distinguish between reali - expression in theatrical terms. Stage directions are kept to ty and fantasy in Soledad (1921), and Elvira’s quixotic-like a bare minimum. There is little or no description of the ability to bring to life the hero of a novel with whom she is stage decor. Characterization, plot, theme, dialogue, and madly in love in Sombras de sueño (1926) are all ways in action do not come together to create an integrated whole, which Unamuno seeks to question the unified concept of which no doubt is what leads Martin Nozick to conclude self and bring the existential crisis of being to the stage. that Unamuno’s theatre is “little more than the perfuncto - Of his eight longer plays, nowhere is the Spanish author ry insertion of his ideas into dramatic outline” (135) and more persistent and methodical in his dramatization of the Julia Biggane to classify his plays as “prose fiction pro - fractured self than in Raquel encadenada (1921), El otro jects” (489). Summarily put, the author fails to integrate (1926), and El hermano Juan o el mundo es teatro (1929). In all the constitutive elements of dramatic expression into the three plays, Unamuno relies on character doubling and theatrical frame. opposition to give physical stage presence to the notion of 98 Not counting his version of Euripides’s Fedra (1910) and the embattled self and other. The protagonists exist in a 99 an incomplete sainete , titled El custión de Galabasa (1880), postmodern vortex, a world of multiple, competing, and Unamuno wrote eight plays and two shorter dramatic often incongruous selves. The composition of the plays is pieces. The shorter works, La princesa doña Lambra and La also characterized by fragmentation. While it is true that in difunta , were both written in 1909. The eight longer works dramatic terms Raquel encadenada , El otro , and El hermano deal with the uncertainties and complexities of the self, the Juan o el mundo es teatro are Unamuno’s most successful defining feature of Unamuno’s literary production in gen - plays, they are nevertheless uneven texts. Scenes appear to eral. The protagonists, whether male or female, are fueled be casually linked and action randomly presented. The by an unwavering, if not obsessive, need to explore and plays are suggestive of “a form of ‘bricolage’ in which nar - know the self. In their determination to affirm their iden - rative development is displaced and undermined” (12), to tity, Unamuno’s characters become engaged in contentious use Nick Kaye’s words. The questionable artistic merit of relationships with those around them. But it is the dialec - the three works aside, the goal here is to illustrate how tical opposition of self and other within the characters Unamuno systematically, if not doggedly, executes his themselves that serves as the focus of Unamuno’s dis - exploration of self and other to create plays in which mind course. imposes itself over matter resulting in a theatre that is con - Unamuno’s protagonists are objects of problematiza - ceptually postmodern. tion, the antithesis of coherent subjectivity. Their angst- On the surface, Raquel encadenada is a play about steril - ridden existence has nothing to do with external social or ity. Raquel is a violinist who is obsessed with motherhood. political drives or forces, as I have already suggested, and Her husband and manager Simón, on the other hand, has everything to do with epistemological and ontological no interest whatsoever in having children. His obsession is inquiry. Like more recent postmodern protagonists, Una - money. For all intents and purposes, he exploits Raquel’s muno’s characters evolve schizophrenically rather than musical talent to satisfy his greed. During a trip to their holistically to embody what Ihab Hassan has appropriate - hometown to negotiate a contract for a performance, Ontological Premise and Postmodern... John P. Gabriele

Simón’s brother-in-law suggests that the couple adopt versation with Simón and Raquel’s with Aurelio reveal Simon;’s orphaned nephew. Simón refuses. Aurelio, Raquel’s most ardent desire, that of being a mother. Raquel’s cousin, ex-boyfriend, and the father of an illegiti - Simón, however, has no interest whatsoever in adopting a mate child about whom he never told Raquel, also lives in child. When Raquel asks why Aurelio has chosen to tell her the town. Taking full advantage of the situation, Raquel about the child he fathered now, he whispers in her ear seizes the opportunity to become a mother; she decides to that “lo que quiero es liberarte” (668). Playing on the dis - leave her husband Simón for Aurelio and care for his ille - agreement between Raquel and Simón over the adoption gitimate child. The action, although potentially dramatic, in conjunction with motherhood and suggesting that is stunted and borders on the improbable, if not absurd, as Raqu el is entrapped and needs to be freed, Unamuno lays the the result of Unamuno’s determination to impose his agen - B for his exploration of the ontology of being. The author da and concentrate on the deep-seated crisis of self that employs Raquel’s yearning to be a mother as a device to plays itself out through Raquel’s somewhat implausible reveal that otherness and the encounter with the other is nec - act. essary for establishing a cohere nt self. Unamuno immediately thematizes the concepts of self There is no illusionist spectacle here. The interchanges and other in the conversation between Raquel, Aurelio, between these characters have but one objective: to intro - and Simón with which the play opens. Their interchange duce Raquel’s character as the embodiment of a tormented centers on Raquel’s and Simón’s relationship. Simón self. All the characters, but especially Raquel, are nothing believes that his primary obligation in their marriage is to more than the symbolic incarnation of Unamuno’s overar - be practical because artists and performers can be unrea - ching scheme. As a result, characterization and dialogue sonable, “soñadores,” as he puts it. When Aurelio sug - come across as somewhat formulaic. Categorically, the 100 gests to Raquel that Simón does his job well and insists he characters in Raquel encdenada are, as Iris Zavala has aptly 101 understands Raquel’s needs, Simón corrects him and noted, “personajes . . . sin disimulo” (74). The suggested maintains that it is Aurelio instead, “tu primo. . . quien adoption of Simón’s orphaned nephew and Aurelio’s news mejor te conoce” (657). Although Robert Nicholas claims that he is the father of a child are secondary to Unamuno’s that “to know oneself is the necessary antecedent to being exploration of Raquel’s existential dilemma as an unful - known by others” (453), in Raquel’s case it appears that filled individual. Unamuno’s only goal is to underscore being known by others is the necessary antecedent to the extent to which Raquel is caught up in an identity cri - knowing oneself. The interchange between the three char - sis, which by her own admission has resulted in a suffo - acters immediately brings the idea of self-knowledge and cating feeling of loneliness and emptiness (“de esta the dynamics of self and other into the foreground of the soledad. . . , de este vacío. . . , de esto que me ahoga”), a action. feeling she likens to being on the verge of falling into a Unamuno wastes no time in building on his discourse great abyss: “Paréceme ver siempre al lado una sima, una of self and other. He quickly brings in the one element of sima sin fondo, oscura y helada, llena de vacío y que si the plot that will allow him to develop his argument, caigo en ella he de estarme cayendo siempre, siempre, Raquel’s obsession with motherhood. Simón’s brother-in- siempre, sin fin, sin fin, sin fin, en el vacío oscuro y helado. law Manuel insists he must speak with him about adopt - . .” (678-79). Raquel’s anxiety, the emptiness she feels, and ing their orphaned nephew, the child of Simón’s brother her fear of falling into an abyss are symptomatic of her and Manual’s sister who are both deceased. While the two ontological crisis for which motherhood is the determi - are engaged in conversation, Aurelio converses with nant. Raquel. During their interchange, it becomes obvious that Events occur and characters engage in dialogue with no Aurelio still cares deeply for her. Aurelio informs her that apparent dramatic rhyme or reason vis-à-vis the action. A he broke off their relationship because he had fathered a well constructed plot and coherent narrativity are not child whose mother died during childbirth. Manuel’s con - among Unamuno’s primary concerns. In Raquel encadena - Ontological Premise and Postmodern... John P. Gabriele

da , “text and the plot” are, as Patrice Pavis might say, “no The protagonist’s existential dilemma is at odds with longer at the center of the performance” (12). In imposing narrative logic in Raquel encadenada , which thwarts any scheme over textual and contextual integration, Unamuno sense of narrative continuity and logic associated with uni - places presentation over representation and sacrifices fied theatrical representation. While it is true that the evo - artistic totality. A conversation between Manuel and lution of the play exemplifies David Harvey’s claim that Raquel provides an opportunity for Unamuno to define authors who consciously reject “coherent representation even more precisely Raquel’s crisis and advance his idea. and action” do so because they feel that they are “either In response to Manuel’s contention of financial straits, repressive or illusionary” (52) when focusing on “ontolog - Raquel tells Manuel that “no sólo de pan vive el hombre” ical issues and themes” and “literary models of the self” and then adds, “ni menos la mujer, sino de que la llamen (253), Unamuno most certainly did not consciously disrupt madre. . . ¡Madre. . . ! ¡Madre. . . !” (682). Convinced that artistic coherence in Raquel encadenada . The uneven con - motherhood is the cure for her dilemma, Raquel pleads struction of the play is the result of his resolute schematic with Simón to allow her to adopt his orphaned nephew. approach to theatre, which lends an unquestionable post - Motherhood she tells her husband is the means to fulfilling modern dimension to his text. “aquel vació”, “¡aquella sima!,” and to “¡curarme!” (685). The juxtaposition of Raquel the violinist and Raquel the The prospect of adopting the child is a matter of survival mother points simultaneously to a loss and a reaffirmation of for Raquel. “Necesito un hijo, un hijo, un hijo!” “Dame un self, of a self that seeks to give full expression to the repressed hijo,” she implores her husband. “Dame vida. Si no, me other. From the perspective of performance, Raquel’s char - muero, Simón, me muero” (687). acter impersonates presence and absence simultaneously. Unamuno’s employs Simón’s character as an emblem - The tension between self and other, and absence and pres - 102 atic device to reveal the complex interrelationship of self ence, are at the very center of Unamuno’s ontological dis - 103 and other and externalize the inner turmoil that defines course in Raquel encadenada . Raquel’s decision to leave Simón Raquel’s character. Engrossed in the realm of the other and care for Aurelio’s child is the moment at which conscious (as a violinist) under her husband’s tutelage, the oppor - acknowledgement of the other brings about Raquel’s neces - tunity to adopt a child has set in motion an encounter sary recognition of the self as Catalina suggests at the begin - with the self. Raquel’s compulsive self-examination pro - ning of Act Three: “Desde que volvió [Raquel] de casa de su duces a confusing inability to locate a coherent under - primo, de Aurelio, de cuidar al niño, es otra. . . , otra” (702). standing of self, which results in the conflict that evolves The emblematic significance of Simón’s character is under - between Simón and Raquel and her decision to resolve scored once again. “Pero tu [Simón’s] negativa a traer a tu her dilemma through a seemingly implausible act. sobrino la exasperó” (703), Catalina tells him. “Mi señorita,” Unwilling to listen to reason, Raquel openly declares to she explains, “hace ya días que no toca” (706). Simón that “O me dejas ir a casa del niño, de mi sobrino, Raquel’s character has evolved from the realm of the a cuidarle, o . . . ni vuelvo a tocar” (697) and insists that other (Raquel the musician) to the realm of the self (Raquel “aunque me tengas a pan y agua. . . , aunque me mates. . the mother). What was initially the absent other comes to . , ya no trabajo . . .” (699). By the end of the second act, presence on the stage. Conversely, what was perceived as Raquel has made up her mind. Alone on the stage, she the present self becomes absent from the stage. This inter - insists that “tengo que dejarte [Simón]. Me lo [Aurelio’s action of presence and absence constitutes, as Yuan Yuan child] voy a llevar, sí, me lo voy a llevar” (701). Albeit a would no doubt say, the “structural principal and domi - potentially dramatic scene, what has brought Raquel to nating metaphor” (125) of Unamuno’s play. Indeed it is this decisive moment is not predicated on the action that the case that Unamuno’s scheme in Raquel encadenada , and preceded it but on Unamuno’s determination to keep the consequently his narrative, rest on the absence that dwells ontologica l dimension of selfhood and otherness in the within his protagonist and persistently seeks concrete rep - forefront. resentation on the stage. Ontological Premise and Postmodern... John P. Gabriele

Concrete representation of self, as the last act of the play ana confronts Laura, claiming that she has stolen her hus - illustrates, brings with it a consciousness of self. Simón band. Soon after, el Otro commits suicide. finally agrees to adopt his brother-in-law’s child. But Cata - In El otro , as in Raquel encadenada , Unamuno reduces lina informs him that it is too late: “ya no quiere [Raquel] plot, setting, dramatic language, and characterization to a ese sobrino, el tuyo, sino el otro, el suyo, el hijo de su primo bare minimum in order to concentrate on his essayistic-like Aurelio” (709). To categorically reject Simón’s nephew ontological discourse of self and other. According to Cán - and lay claim to Aurelio’s as her own, is a sign of Raquel’s dido Ayllón, El otro is the quintessential example of Una - self-realization. What Simón now views as a cross that his muno’s theatre, by which the critic means to say that the wife bears, Raquel sees as a sign of her newly forged self, play presents the “XXth century idea of perspectives, mul - of the self she so obsessively sought to discover and which tiplicity, plurality and realities” (52). For Ayllón, Una - she is happy to recognize: “¡Sí, me la llevo, cruz de madre. muno raises “the question of what is reality” in the play to . . ! Me la he ganado. . .” (722). underscore “that we cannot know ultimately and com - Robert Ellis writes that the “Other” in Unamuno’s pletely the nature of reality” (52-53). The interaction of works functions “as a kind of mirror in which conscious - absence and presence is more intricately conceived in El ness discovers its reflection” (28). Raquel’s consciousness otro than in Raquel encadenada . There is an abstract, almost arises as a result of her conflict with the other, which is metaphysical, quality to the play as numerous critics have externalized for dramatic purposes through her disagree - underscored (see Ilie, Molina 326-27, Miller). It is a play ment with Simón over adoption. Simón is the obstacle to about the nature of being, about fragmented egos, about her personal fulfillment. His character and their con - the disintegrative and intregrative interplay of the many tentious relationship together function metaphorically as a facets of one’s personality, and about the skepticism and 104 kind of mirror, to use Ellis’s words, that both reflects her doubts of existence. In sum, it is strikingly postmodern. 105 inner turmoil and brings about a conscious recognition of Cosme and Damián never appear on the stage. Their the self. Unamuno constructs Raquel as the site of ontolog - characters are subsumed within the character identified ical uncertainty and inquiry, a subject that simultaneously solely as el Otro, who appears on the stage from the experiences dissolution and rebirth. Her being is only moment the play opens. El Otro is the product of both fully realized after a confrontation with her fractured self, character doubling and character opposition. He repre - which Unamuno externalizes through her dialectical rela - sents both Damián and Cosme and the embodiment of the tionship with Simón who incarnates aspects of the conflict that exists between the two and within them indi - repressed other in concrete physical terms on the stage. vidually. Through el Otro, Unamuno gives stage presence Unamuno’s exposition of the fragmented self is signifi - simultaneously to two absent characters in a kaleidoscopic cantly more complicated in El otro . Although the storyline interaction of self and other that inevitably results in a dou - is intricately woven, what transpires in the play is easy to bly tragic end to convey that the self is inherently contra - summarize. Cosme and Damián, two identical-twin broth - dictory and irrevocably fragmented. As the embodiment of ers, hate each other because they are in love with the same identical twins whose personal identities are in flux and woman, Laura. Since she can not distinguish between whose characters are locked in a combative struggle, el them, Laura lets them choose whom she should marry. Otro’s existence is labyrinthine. Like a mise-en-abyme , his Cosme marries her and Damián goes away. Damián later character is the composite of overlapping selves and others marries Damiana. Cosme attends the wedding without that both reflect and oppose each other to project a sense of Laura. One of the brothers kills his identical twin and all lost absolutes. returns. But it is not clear which brother killed which. Cosme, according to Laura, is possessed. Pursued by Overcome by guilt, the surviving brother is unable to say “ése que él [Cosme] llama ‘el otro’,” she explains how her which one he is, becomes insane, and calls himself el Otro. husband “ha hecho tapar todos los espejos de casa” (797). Convinced that the twin who survived is Damián, Dami - That Cosme insists on covering all the mirrors in the house Ontological Premise and Postmodern... John P. Gabriele

is a sign of his deep-seated crisis of self. The mirror, as J.E. low him to the bodega where he will show him “el cadáver Cirlot reminds us, is “a symbol of . . . consciousness in its del otro, del que se me murió aquí” (803-04). capacity to reflect the formal reality of the visible world” Through the metaleptic construction of character, which (201). Cirlot also tells us that the mirror reflects the “uncon - combines a fascinating interplay of absence and presence, scious” and what is “absent” (210). More important still, Unamuno dramatizes the problematization of the self to “like the echo,” writes Cirlot, “it stands for twins (thesis explore the nature and significance of being. His objective and antithesis)” (202). is to deconstruct the notion of the essential self and fore - Unamuno’s use of the mirror is doubly emblematic ground the uncertainty of being. Metalepsis, as Debra because it symbolizes that not only is the self in crisis but Malina tells us, is an effective artistic means employed by so too is the other. As identical twins, Cosme’s insistence authors to allow characters from different realms to co- that all the mirrors in the house be covered is at once exist in more than one world simultaneously (25-62). To Damián’s insistence that all the mirrors in the house be maintain that el Otro has seen himself enter the room, sit in covered. Similarly, Cosme’s fear of viewing himself in the the very chair where he is now seated, and suggest that he mirror is at once Damián’s fear of viewing himself in the is also the dead body in the bodega is indicative of the fun - mirror. To look at the self in El otro is to look at the other; damentally paradoxical existence of the twin brothers, to look at the other is to look at the self. El Otro, whose characters who are one and the same and yet different, character embodies both Cosme and Damián, avoids mir - characters whose being rejects permanent truth. rors because he is not only fearful of the confrontation of It is also important to recall that although Cosme and the conscious and unconscious self but of the confrontation Damián do not appear in the list of characters, they are with the conscious and unconscious other. Also notewor - both represented in el Otro who is listed and through 106 thy is the fact that their house is described as “parte cárcel, whom they are present in the play. The “suppression of 107 parte cementerio” (795). The symbolism of the mirror in proper names and the concomitant growth of anonymity” combination with the metaphoric significance of the (45), as Thomas Docherty reminds us, is a textual indica - description of the house as a prison and a cemetery allows tion of characters in crisis. Cosme and Damián, although Unamuno to convey that both Cosme and Damián suffer textually absent, are contextually present within the the - from a crisis that imprisons them from inside as well as atrical frame. In denying Cosme and Damián nominal outside. El Otro’s existence within a structure that repre - presence on the stage, Unamuno effectively decenters his sents entrapment and death and his unwillingness to face characters in typical postmodern fashion to suggest that a mirror are indicative of an instability of self and other at they are defined by a fundamental disarticulation of self a core level. and other within the theatrical frame. Their existence as Throughout the entire first act, Unamuno repeatedly theatrical characters also rejects permanent truth because underscores el Otro’s conundrum-like being. Although both are equally imaginary and equally real, both equally believed to be Cosme by others, el Otro suggests that he absent and equally present, within the proscenium arch. could be his brother Damián. He tells Ernesto that he feels What transpires in the second and third act functions in as if he “lleva dentro de sí a un muerto” (801), which is of a dissertation-like manner to highlight the chasm of self- course linked to the image of the house as a cemetery, and identity introduced in the first act. The fragmented nature that he has seen himself “entrar a mí mismo por esa puer - of el Otro is further underscored in the second act by what ta . . . como si me hubiese desprendido de un espejo, y me others, particularly Laura, reveal about the two brothers. vi sentarme” (802-03). This builds on the symbolism of the She talks of how a rivalry steadily grew between the broth - mirror and character doubling and opposition. “¡Aquí, en ers while they were both courting her and how she, as well este mismo sillón, estaba mi cadáver,” he tells Ernesto, as the twins themselves, feared that they might kill each declaring that “¡yo soy el cadáver, yo soy el muerto! . . . other: “Llegúe a temer, llegaron a temer que mataran el ¡Todo es para mí espejo!” He then instructs Ernesto to fol - uno al otro, algo así como un suicidio mutuo” (811). The Ontological Premise and Postmodern... John P. Gabriele

second act deepens Unamuno’s epistemological discourse imagistically connected to the cadaver discovered in the as it increasingly reflects the world of lost absolutes of El bodega. It makes no difference which brother killed which otro . When Damiana informs Ernesto, for example, that she and which committed suicide, the outcome is the same has come to find out what has happened to her husband, because self and other are interchangeable. The Ama’s the latter responds: “Su Damián, señora, o el otro, tu insistence that the twins be buried together is yet another Cosme, Laura, está muerto y encerrado a oscuras en la mise-en-abyme meant to underscore one final time the bodega” (816). El Otro is simultaneously both Cosme and degree to which self and other are ontologically inscribed Damián, either Cosme or Damián, or neither Cosme or and irrevocably fused in Unamuno’s play. Damián, which el Otro himself reaffirms when he claims In El hermano Juan o el mundo es teatro , Unamuno turns that he is both “uno y otro” (817) and no one: “Yo no sé his attention to the Don Juan figure, a character who in the quién soy. . .” (823). The self is sufficiently decentered that opinion of the author is inherently metatheatrical as he identity has become relativized and rendered unreliable. states in the extensive prologue to the play: “ Don Juan The self in El otro is constructed in accordance with a Tenorio consiste en que es el personaje más eminentemen - discourse of arbitrary duality, as el Otro asserts in the third te teatral, representativo, histórico, en que está siempre act: “¡Ah, terrible tortura la de nacer doble! ¡De no ser representado, es decir, representándose a sí mismo ” (858). siempre uno y el mismo!” (829). In a world where selves Unamuno’s protagonist is the complete antithesis of the and others collide, are fused and confused, and the mani - outgoing, eccentric, extraverted womanizer associated festation of being is predicated on inherent duality, all with the legend. He is a lackluster character at best, intro - individuals elude coherence as el Otro points out to Dami - spective, pensive, and essentially frightened of women ana and Laura. “¡Las dos,” he tells them, “sois la otra! Y no who, by the end of the play, becomes a monk. In this play, 108 os dintiguís en nada” (835). Moreover, if self and other are Juan’s image is both reflected in and is a reflection of the 109 indistinguishable, epistemological uncertainty is unavoid - numerous literary incarnations of the Don Juan character. ably propagated. Before the play ends, Damiana Unamuno’s objective is to illustrate to what extent Juan’s announces that she is pregnant. When el Otro asks whose identity has been thrust upon him resulting in an existen - child it is, “¿De mí o del otro?,” she responds appropria - tial crisis that pits the reality of self against the illusion of tely, “De los dos, del uno que sois” (837). Shortly after his self. interchange with Damiana, “ se oye un cuerpo que cae ” (845). Unamuno juxtaposes reality and illusion in El hermano Believing it would put an end to his existential crisis, el Juan o el mundo es teatro to emphasize his protagonist’s Otro has hanged himself. The dilemma of self, however, inherent theatrical nature and convey that life and perfor - will persist in the child Damiana will bear. Thus the ulti - mance are indistinguishable in the construction of self. His mate ontological boundary, the distinction between being purpose is, as Lucile Charlebois points out, to illustrate (life) and non-being (death), is also eradicated. All that that life is a play of assumed roles that are often at odds remains is uncertainlty as the Ama claims at the end of the with the roles within the very individual who assumes play when she identifies el Otro’s body as both “¡El otro!” them (55-56). Unamuno’s Juan is well aware of his theatri - and “¡Los dos!” and insists they be buried together: “Y a cal pedigree: “Lo que no olvido es que piso tablado” (918). enterralos juntos” (847). Like all metatheatrical characters, Juan embodies the com - Self and other are simultaneously asserted and contest - bative opposition of the role and the real. The essential self ed in El otro . The world that Unamuno depicts in the play and the role-playing self are seamlessly melded in Juan’s is indefinite. It is a world in which life is an interactive character. Not unlike Raquel and el Otro, Juan represents function of being and non-being, a world of “terminal a character in whom being is a function of simultaneously paradoxes” (207), as Martin Travers, might say, one in constructing and erasing the self and the other. which the self is forever “ constitutivamente escindido” The Don Juan figure is fertile ground for the ontological (211), to quote Andrés Franco. El Otro’s lifeless body is exploration of self and other as Søren Kierkegaard sug - Ontological Premise and Postmodern... John P. Gabriele

gests. “Don Juan,” writes Kierkegaard, “continually hovers character and propagate the role of the other or an actor between being an idea—that is power, life—and being an and establish his true self. The myth, however, is an inher - individual.” He is “a picture that is continually coming ently imposing feature of his being as is made evident in into view but does not attain form and consistency, an the second act, which takes place in Juan’s childhood individual who is continually being formed but never fin - home. Juan talks of his birth as a debut on the stage: “En ished” (92). The character’s dilemma is fundamentally el fondo de mi memoria como cimiento, está el recuerdo existential, as Unamuno’s protagonist himself declares in del gemido de mi pobre madre al verme asomar la cabeza his opening line in the play: “Ni yo acabo de entenderme. a este escenario del mundo” (908). Juan was conceived by . . Así nací. . .” (875). Juan is conscious of his crisis. In con - and for the theatre and hence destined to live his life as versation with Inés, he alludes to his inability to comply illusion. with the prescriptive legendary role that has been thrust Invoking the literary genealogy of his character, Elvira upon him and states clearly that conformity with expected tries to seduce Juan as the second act evolves. In her mind, behavior is the source of his dilemma: “yo nací ordenado a this is the solution to his dilemma: “[L]o que tú buscas por no poder hacer mujer a mujer alguna, ni a mí hombre” ahí, loco perdido, te lo tengo yo” (915). But her efforts are (876). By his own admission, Juan is unable to assume the to no avail. Building on the notion of Juan as the historical role of the womanizer that legend has ascribed to him, to propagation of previous Don Juan figures, Unamuno con - impersonate the mythical other that has traditionally veys just how difficult it is to break with myths that impose defined his character. themselves. Doña Petra appears in Act Two to insinuate Unamuno’s Juan is a fictive character plagued simulta - that Juan is responsible for the suicide of her daughter. neously by both acceptance and denial of self and other. Despite Juan’s insistence to the contrary, she demands ret - 110 His character hovers between being and non-being, the ribution for his acts. At one point in her interchange with 111 product of a dynamic interplay between life and art, Juan, Petra refers to him as a “burlador,” to which Juan between reality and fantasy. The dual nature of his exis - responds “Mi oficio. ¡Burlador. . . burlado! ¡Así medro!” tence is a metaphor for life, and the opposition of self and (919), which is a direct allusion to Tirso de Molina’s other within Juan is at once the cause and the effect of his Burlador de Sevilla . Shortly after, he recites the lines spoken troubled existence. Juan possesses two distinct identities by his nineteenth-century predecessor in scene ten of Act of which he is fully aware. The lines between the two are Four of Part One of José Zorrilla’s Don Juan Tenorio , as if it sufficiently blurred that he suffers from a double con - were the most natural thing to do: “Llamé al cielo, y no me sciousness of being, what Gloria Domeque Krzynowek oyó,/ y pues sus puertas me cierra,/ de mis pasos en la refers to as “la dualidad entre la personalidad íntima y la tierra/ responda el cielo, no yo.” When Antonio com - externa” (150), and which Unamuno brings to the stage in ments, “¡qué bien te ha salido!,” Juan follows with, “¡lo what Veronica Hollinger might well call a “condition of hice tantas veces en mis otras vidas” (924). Juan is fully self-reflexive performance” (183). Unable to choose conscious of his theatrical legacy and of the drama that is between playing the self and being the self, Juan imper - unfolding around him and within him. As such, he cannot sonates a duality of which others are fully aware. “La ver - help but participate in his own dramatization by reciting dad,” as Inés tells him, is that “se me antoja que siempre the lines of Zorrilla’s protagonist, words that suggest that estás representando” (878). In Benito’s words, Don Juan is there is no solution to his crisis of self. In El hermano Juan a “monstruo de doblez” (889). o el mundo es teatro , reality and illusion align themselves in El hermano Juan o el mundo es teatro is a play about such a way in Juan’s character to suggest that being is a human identity whose protagonist must decide who he performative act of mise-en-scène , an improvisational act in wants to be. He must decide whether he wants to be the which self and other impersonate each other naturally. legendary character or shed the myth and forge his own Assuming the role of Zorrilla’s Don Juan and admitting identity, or in theatrical terms, whether he wants to be a to his previous lives is a sign that Juan’s character is Ontological Premise and Postmodern... John P. Gabriele

defined by a dissolution of the self and its boundaries, that What transpires in El hermano Juan o el mundo es teatro Unamuno’s protagonist is the inevitable replica of the Don reminds us that certain conditions of identity, such as the Juans that preceded him, and that his being consists of a self, are naturally theatre-like because we are always nego - “never-ending stream back to the source” (Fischer-Lichte tiating between self and other, between reality and illu - 264). His character is the site where multiple others inter - sion. Of the three plays studied here, El hermano Juan o el mingle and, as a result, complicate the expression of self. mundo es teatro is the one that best exemplifies N. M. Rao’s Unable to escape his theatrical legacy, Juan eludes con - claim that “metatheatre dramatizes” the struggle of self cretization and coherency to exist merely as an ephemeral and other “both as a technical and a metaphysical prob - or illusive self, which explains his declaration at the end of lem” (216). Through Juan, Unamuno is able to highlight Act Two that “por mis vidas esto no es vivir” (941). For the performative nature of the self as it negotiates with and Juan, life is the result of an ambiguous interaction of art inevitably impersonates the other to raise ontological ques - and reality. Like Raquel and el Otro, he too is a fractured tions about being and human identity, which is no doubt being. Just as Juan is a character that mirrors other char - the proposition behind Antonio’s statement at the end of acters, so too is El hermano Juan o el mundo es teatro a text the play: “El teatro es la primera de las verdades. . . , la más that mirrors other texts, a defining feature of postmodern verdadera. . ., no la que se ve, sino la que se hace” (983). works (see Broich 249-53). Unamuno’s theatre is not postmodern by design but In the last act, Juan is living out his life as a monk, an there is a definite postmodern contexture to it as I have attempt on his part to isolate himself from the outside suggested throughout this study. Although postmod - world where the legend of his character was exceedingly ernism is an artistic and philosophical phenomenon of the invasive. He remains painfully aware, however, that a late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the post - 112 break with his theatrical legacy is futile. He admits to modern features of Unamuno’s theatre are more coinci - 113 Father Teófilo that he is “condenado a ser siempre, él dental than they are intentional, the result of his determi - mismo” (951). Juan cannot escape the previous theatrical nation to depict characters as beings whose selves are in incarnations of his self, which are by his own admission constant flux. He did not set out intentionally to construct “pecados . . . que me pesan” (961). He too, like el Otro, is plays in which the text and the plot are no longer at the more than one person and no one at the same time: “Yo fui center of the performance. But his schematic approach did Don Juan Tenorio, yo he sido entre otros Don Juan Teno - result in a theatre that is characterized by antinarrativity. rio, pues el Señor nos acuñó con el mismo troquel” (962). Postmodernists hold that the subject is constructed by Unamuno suggests that the search for one’s true identity is the discursive contexts in which it is situated. In the case ultimately in vain. of Raquel encadenada , El otro , and El hermano Juan o el mundo The existential angst and ontological exploration of the es teatro , it is the context that is constructed by the discur - self, which are the focus of Unamuno’s discourse in El her - sive significance of the subject. As characters of a “teatro mano Juan o el mundo es teatro , resurface one final time de ideas,” to use Don Miguel’s own words (“Teatro de before the play ends. As Juan lays dying, he first declares teatro” 1161), Raquel, el Otro, and Juan are first and fore - to Elvira, “¡Teatro! ¡Teatro! ¡El mundo es teatro! Allá en most the product of the author’s conviction that the self is tiempos pasados. . . fuí Don Juan Tenorio, el famoso continually in process, an ongoing means to an unattain - burlador de Sevilla.” Then he asks Inés, “¿Existes tú, Inés? able end. These are characters for whom a consciousness ¿Existes fuera del teatro? . . . ¿Existes fuera de este teatro or affirmation of self is beyond reach. Individually and del mundo en que representas tu papel como yo el mío?” collectively, Raquel, el Otro, and Juan are born of a never- (972). Life’s inherent and inescapable theatricality is once ending dialectic of self and other. They are characters who again brought to the fore. There is no reality beyond the partake simultaneously in the dissolution and constitution stage, no being-in-the-world, just being-in-the-theatre, just of the self. Consequently, they are dispossessed of a foun - representation within representation. dation and become destabilized, which ultimately has a Ontological Premise and Postmodern... John P. Gabriele

destabilizing effect on structure, narrative, and plot, and WORKS CITED makes for action that is implausible and events that do not conform to narrative logic, resulting in texts that are coin - AYLLÓN , Cándido. “Experiments in the Theatre of Unamuno, cidentally postmodern. Valle-Inclán, and Azorín.” Hispania 46.1 (1963): 49-56. BIGGANE , Julia. “Yet Another Other: Unamuno’s El otro and the Anxiety of Influence.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 72 (2000): 479-91. BROICH , Ulrich. “Intertextuality.” International Postmodernism: Theory and Literary Practice . Ed. Hans Bertens and Douwe Fokkema. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1997. 249-55. CHARLEBOIS , Lucile. “Ser-en-el-mundo: el teatro existencial de Miguel de Unamuno.” Ed. H.L. Boudreau and Luis T. González-del-Valle. Lincoln, NE: Society of Spanish and Spanish-American Studies. 1985. 49-66. CIRLOT , J.E. A Dictionary of Symbols . Trans. Jack Sage. New York: Philosophical Library, 1962. DOCHERTY , Thomas. Reading (Absent) Character. Towards a Theo - ry of Characterization in Fiction . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983. DOMEQUE KRZYNOWEK , Gloria. “ El hermano Juan : Unamuno y Don Juan.” Crítica Hispánica 18.1 (1996): 149-58. EDWARDS , Gwynne. Dramatists in Perspective: Spanish Theatre in the Twentieth Century . Cardiff: U of Wales P, 1985. 114 ELLIS , Robert Richmond. The Tragic Pursuit of Being. Unamuno 115 and Sartre . Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1988. ESSLIN , Martin. An Anatomy of Drama . New York: Hill and Wang, 1976. FISCHER-LICHTE , Erika. The Show and the Gaze of Theatre: A European Perspective . Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1997. FRANCO , Andrés. El teatro de Unamuno . Madrid: Insula, 1971. GAGEN , Derek. “Unamuno and the Regeneration of Spanish Theatre.” Re-Reading Unamuno . Ed. Nicholas G. Round. Glas - glow: University of Glasglow, Department of Spanish, 1989. 53-78. HARVEY, David. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change . Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989. HASSAN , Ihab. “Pluralism in Postmodern Perspective.” Explor - ing Postmodernism . Ed. Matei Calinescu and Douwe Fokkema. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1987. 17-39. HOLLINGER , Veronica. “Playing at the End of the World: Post - modern Theater.” Staging the Impossible. The Fantastic Mode in Modern Drama . Ed. Patrick D. Murphy. Westport, CT: Green - wood Press, 1992. 182-96. ILIE , Paul. “Moral Psychology in Unamuno.” Unamuno. Creator and Creation . Ed. José Rubia Barcia and M.A. Zeitlin. Berkeley: U of California P, 1967. 72-91. KAYE , Nick. Postmodernism and Performance . New York: St. Mar - tin’s Press, 1994. Ontological Premise and Postmodern... John P. Gabriele

KIERKEGAARD , Søren. “The Immediate Stages of the Erotic or the Musical-Erotic.” Either/Or Part I . Ed and Trans. Howard PROTAGONISTAS FEMENINAS EN EL V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1987. TEATRO DE UNAMUNO 31-135. LÁZARO CARRETER, Fernando. “El tearo de Unamuno.” Cuaderno de la Cátedra Miguel de Unamuno 7 (1956): 5-29. José Paulino Ayuso MALINA , Debra. Breaking the Frame: Metalepsis and the Construc - Universidad Complutense de Madrid tion of the Subject . Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2002. MILLER , Norman C. “Miguel de Unamuno’s El otro : Anti-real - Aunque es frecuente que hablemos del teatro de Una - ism and Realism.” Cuadernos de ALDEEU 1.1 (1983): 37-44. muno en términos de tragedia, hay que entender que la MOLINA , Ida. “Dialectics for the Search for Truth in El otro and forma dramática, en cuanto a conflictos, registro lingüístico El tragaluz .” Romanistisches Jahrbuch 24 (1973): 323-29. y tipos de personajes y ambientes en que suceden las obras, NICHOLAS , Robert L. “Miguel de Unamuno.” Modern Spanish se puede considerar más bien propia del drama. Y así se Dramatists. A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook . Ed. Mary Parker. suele mencionar en la literatura crítica. En realidad, sola - Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. 449-59. mente Fedra aparecería vinculada a la tragedia, por el origen NOZICK , Martin. Miguel de Unamuno. The Agony of Belief . Prince - ton: Princeton UP, 1971. de la protagonista, que no por la reducción del sistema al PAVIS , Patrice. “The Classical Heritage of Modern Drama: The ambiente doméstico y próximo que realiza el autor al des - Case of Postmodern Theatre.” Trans. Loren Kruger. Modern pojarla de casi todos los referentes mitológicos concretos. Si Drama 29.1 (1986): 1-22. queremos, también La venda vendría a situarse en el plano RAO , N. M. “The Self-Commenting Drama of Our Times.” The de una tragedia, entendida más en el contexto del teatro Aligarth Journal of English Studies 9.2 (1984): 215-26. simbolista que desvela las claves de la tragedia de la exis - 116 ROBERTSON , David. “Unas notas sobre el teatro de Unamuno.” tencia. Por otros motivos, El Otro es susceptible también de Cuaderno de la Cátedra Miguel de Unamuno 27-29 (1983): 174-80. tal consideración por su dimensión existencial. (Dejo al mar - RUIZ RAMÓN, Francisco. Historia del teatro español. Siglo XX . 9 gen la versión de Medea para el teatro romano de Mérida.). ed. Madrid: Cátedra, 1992. Pero La venda y Fedra son precisamente las obras que SHAW, Donald. “Three Plays of Unamuno: A Survey of his Dra - muestran más claramente el protagonismo femenino, que matic Technique.” Forum for Modern Language Studies 13 (1977): 253-63. solamente se repite, a mi juicio, en otro drama: Raquel enca - TORRE, Gullermo de. La difícil universalidad española . Madrid: denada . No es que Soledad (y su rival Gloria) o Elvira no Gredos, 1965. tengan importancia, pero no cabe considerarlas como pro - TRAVERS, Martin. An Introduction to Modern European Literature. tagonistas de las obras en que figuran, ya que lo son From Romanticism to Postmodernism . New York: St. Martin’s Agustín o Julio/Tulio. Lo mismo ocurre en el caso de Ángel Press. 1998. en La Esfinge; y en el caso de El Otro volvemos a encontrar UNAMUNO, Miguel de. El hermano Juan o el mundo es teatro . la unidad del varón frente a la dualidad de las mujeres. En Teatro completo . Ed. Manuel García Blanco. Madrid: Aguilar, cualquier caso, me parece que la similitud de las obras radi - 1959. 855-986. ca sustancialmente en que son dramas de conciencia (y aquí ――. El otro . Teatro completo . Ed. Manuel García Blanco. Madrid: el título del antiguo libro de Iris M. Zavala sigue siendo Aguilar, 1959. 793-854. referencia obligada) que proponen en último término la tra - ――. Raquel encadenada . Teatro completo . Ed. Manuel García Blan - co. Madrid: Aguilar, 1959. 653-723. gedia del ser. ¿Cabe distinguir las que tienen protagonista ――. “Teatro de teatro.” Teatro completo . Ed. Manuel García Blan - masculino de las que lo tienen femenino? co. Madrid: Aguilar, 1959. 1,159-62. La cuestión que se nos plantea acerca de los personajes YUAN , Yuan. “Representation and Absence: Paradoxical Struc - es doble, en realidad. La primera es la que afecta a la carac - ture in Postmodern Texts.” Symposium 51.2 (1997): 124-41. terización de ellos, ya que habitualmente los consideramos ZAVALA , Iris. Unamuno y su teatro de conciencia . Salamanca: Uni - solamente portavoces o esquemas representativos de las versidad de Salamanca, 1963. ideas de Unamuno y, en el caso de Ángel, Agustín o