Schiller’s Drama: Talent and Integrity by Ilse Graham (review)

Reviews 175 The second chapter, the longest of the book, is devoted to the six leading dramatists of the prewar generation. In an apparently descending order of importance, Holt considers the contributions of Jose L6pez Rubio, Miguel Mihura, Joaquin Calvo Sotelo, Jose Marfa Peman, Juan Ignacio Luca de Tena, and Edgar Neville. (The preface explains the ex­ clusion of Enrique Jardiel Poncela and Alejandro Casona from this line­ up.) Most of these playwrights, who were born around the tum of the century and were well-established before the war, are often associated with humoristic comedies in the vein of "teatro de evasi6n." Without excusing their weaknesses, Holt considers their respective talents in handling dramatic technique and in dealing with serious themes. "New Writers of the Post-Civil War Theater," the third chapter, treats Victor Ruiz Iriarte, Antonio Buero Vallejo, Alfonso Sastre, and Alfonso Paso. This chronological arrangement makes for strange bed­ fellows, since esthetically we might expect to find Ruiz Iriarte and Paso in the previous chapter. Holt makes a convincing case, however, for see­ ing them as more than writers of facile, ephemeral plays. Buero receives the most attention in this chapter, commensurate with his talent and with the general critical acclaim of his work. The treatment of Buero and Sastre does not purport to be exhaustive because of the thorough critical studies already available on both authors. "Second Group of Postwar Dramatists," the fourth chapter, after a brief look at the so-called dramatists of social protest, deals with Jose Martin Recuerda, Antonio Gala, and the Catalan writer Jaime Salom. These are younger authors, not fully established, but with the promise of maturity into substantial writers. Holt's play analyses flow smoothly, and the balanced proportion of plot to critical interpretation should satisfy both the specialist and the uninitiated. Along the way, Holt points out the influences of !ind paral­ lels with previous Spanish writers and other modem European drama­ tists, especially Pirandello. His remarks on other reviewers' commen­ taries at the time of performance also give some good insights into the state of Spanish theater criticism. Brief bits of biographical and historical information are well-integrated to give a total view of this national theater movement. This informative study does justice to the efforts of a group of talented and determined writers who have managed to sus­ tain the long tradition of Spanish theater in spite of often unfavorable conditions.· GEORGE WOODYARD The University of Kansas Ilse Graham. Schiller's Drama: Talent and Integrity. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1974. $20.00 This is an unusual and a precious book, written in cultivated, clear and very beautiful British. It is the result of over 20 years of intense study of Schill er, which Ms. Graham acknowledges in her notes when 11 176 Comparative Drama she refers to her various articles on Schiller published years ago and well known to scholars of German literature. Both this book and an­ other entitled Schiller, A Master of the Tragic Form; His Theory in His Practice (N.Y., 1974) deal in great detail, and with profound knowl­ edge of Schiller's works as well as his German and English critics, with an author whose qualifications for greatness have been doubted often. Ms. Graham loves her author and penetrates into his writings with the clear insights love confers. Her basic method is that of new criticism. She concentrates on Schiller's plays, omitting almost all historical or even biographical details in favor of a thorough analysis of the plays in terms of either a prevailing image, or a prevailing esthetic attitude or idea. I will come back to my reaction to this method later because it seems more important to see what she does with her rich material than to criticize a method, by now gen­ erally con,sidered outmoded. Chapters 1-9 are interpretations of individual plays; chapters 10-12 discuss some more general motifs of Schiller's poetic thought. No play, however, is discussed in its entirety-they are rather seen each from one particular viewpoint which is followed up in all its nuances and which branches out into large portions of the play and ultimately is applicable to all...