The Contemporary Spanish Theater: A Collection of Critical Essays ed. by Martha T. Halsey and Phyllis Zatlin (review)

450 Book Reviews because the Tyroncs can only eternally repeat their past, rather than transforming it into communaJ rites that will create for them a new world, they "remain trapped in time, and the spiral cODtinues downward" (p. 91). For some reason Porter finds that things are different in A Moon/or the Misbegotten. "As in LOllg Day's Journey , O'Neill employes the rite of confession.... In LA Moon], however, the pattern of confession and absolution moves toward a cosmogony, the creation of a new order" (p. roo). Jim Tyrone's confession to Josie Hogan works because "Josie ... becomes, miraculously. at once his mother Mary. the Virgin Mary and Mother Church" (p. I I). Porter believes that confession allows Jim to die and be born again, free from his old sins and his conscience to sleep "the dream1ess sleep of a newborn child" (p. 101). Porter never explains why she thinks things are different in A Moon/or the Misbegotten , an important omission because the credibility of the book depends upon the reader's estimate of her literary judgment: how does she fonn her conclusions? I believe that her knowledge is itself direct, mystical. That is certainly a legitimate fann of knowledge, but it needs to be expressed as such. Porter's book is interesting because it alJows one side of a problem in O'Neill to emerge. a probJem that is only now becoming visible. Pagan mysticism sees humans as creatures in nature and sees the gods as natural forces; the tragic vision grows out of the tension between human consciousness and natural imperatives. including time and death. By contrast Christian mysticism transfonns God into an ideal of goodness and places humans between God and nature. Each point of view believes it subsumes the other. Where does this leave O'Neill? That is a question Porter has not yet reached. But if we take her argument seriously, it is one O'Neill scholars will have to face. STEPHEN A. BLACK, SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY MARTHA T. HALSEY AND PHYLLIS ZATLlN, eds. The Contemporary Spanish Theater: A Collection o/Critical Essays. Lanham, MD: University Press of America 1988. pp.xi, 274. illustraled. $28.75; $15.75 (PB). It is customary in the study and criticism of Spanish drama to use the word teatro to refer to the texts of plays, although it covers as well the whole range of matters encompassing the theatrical arts. There is also a tendency to eschew the word "drama," although it is by no means rejected. Hence, the reader should expect, as a normal thing, that a book with a title such as this one will most likely deal with plays. In fact, such is the case with the essays that Martha Halsey and Phyllis Zarlin have written and collected in this volume; it deals with plays and playwrights primarily and only incidentally with actors, produceB, theater buildings, mime, and other such manifestations of the performing arts. The period the authors cover is from the 1940S to the present. There was a well defined division between ~ineteenth-century Spanish drama and the new directions of the Book Reviews 451 twentieth century that occurred beginning in the 18905. The early part of the century produced a wide variety of plays ranging from the poetical, historical dramas of Eduardo Marquina through the sophisticated comedies of Nobel Prize winner lacinto Benavente to the grotesque tragedies of Carlos Arniches. In the 19205 a flourishing theatrical life found a modest place for the avalll garde work ofolder writers like Miguel de Unamuno and Azarin, although Ram6n del Valle~Inclan was relegated to the margin. It also saw the poetic theater of Federico Garcia Lorea accepted and produced on the commercial stage. The Spanish Civil War (1936-39) shaltered theatrical life. Authors - nOlably Lorca actors , and directors died in the conflict. Some fled into exile. Others stayed on. In fact, the popular Iardiel Poncela produced a new play in the fall of 1939 after the war ended on April I . But those first years were dismal ones for Spaniards, and the theater was barely nourished by recourse to its past. Then "the contemporary Spanish theater" began on a particular date: October...