Buero's Use of History and Myth: An Introduction

Much of the use of myth and history in Spanish twentieth-century literature was born of an abuse of the same by the dominant group in society; the regime used history as ‘a legitimator of action and cement of group cohesion’. As Elizabeth S. Rogers commented, ‘It is this official version of History (with its capital H) which sets the standards of behaviour and thus becomes the basis of role definition in society, as much in the past as in the present.’ In his employment of history, Buero's aim was to reclaim its logical trajectory and to deny the Nationalist–Falangist version of Spain's history, which contrived to deny and falsify certain critical events of the past; by offering an alternative, possible version of history, he implied the falsity of the official version. Buero was also anxious to demonstrate how history repeats itself and how people continue to make the same avoidable mistakes through ignorance, deliberate or otherwise, of the past. Like other authors who employed history in their works, Buero aimed to debunk the myth of an historically unified Spain. Moreover, in these dramas, he showed how the future is affected by the past and determined by the present, and he denounced the apathy that threatened his vision of Spain's future.

In Buero's plays, myths are given a new treatment in which the supposed truth they contain is parodied, subverted or exposed as false. Thus, it is suggested to the spectator that other hallowed myths may also be deceptive. It is also the case, however, that the author himself took advantage of the supposed eternal truth of myth to persuade an audience that an element of a myth, perhaps one previously ignored, is true.