The influence of the visual arts on the work of Ramon del Valle-Inclan and Rafael Alberti (1900-1936). [Spanish text]

The formal and thematic influence of the visual arts on literature is analyzed in this study of the early twentieth-century works of Ramon del Valle-Inclan and Rafael Alberti--two eminent Spanish writers whose work represents, between them, the literary genres of the novel, drama, and poetry. A detailed examination of selected examples from Valle-Inclan\u27s La media noche, Luces de Bohemia, and Tirano Banderas, and Alberti\u27s pre-exile poetry shows that the visual techniques adopted by these authors coincide significantly with those of early twentieth-century silent film, photography, and cubist painting. This is especially true of the use of visual fragmentation, which implies a violent distortion of space and time in their literary production. The historic, sociocultural, and artistic roots of fragmentation are discussed, as well as how fragmentation is applied so that we see in the literary works of these two authors. To determine the direct paths of influence of the visual arts on Valle-Inclan and on Alberti, a picture of the artistic ambiance of pre-civil war Spain is presented, and the personal and cultural contacts of these two authors are traced. Each author\u27s above-mentioned works are thoroughly surveyed for evidence of visual techniques, such as montage, dissolves, the shot, the division of space into close-ups, medium or long shots, and the imitation of camera movements and angles through mobility and diversity of point of view. Similarly, the chaotic disordering of time and space apparent in cubism and in new photography techniques are incorporated into the formal structure of the works of these authors and are shown to be a systematic part of their literary aesthetic