Pedro Salinas' Theater of Self-Authentication: (199 American University Studies, Series 2: Romance, Languages & Literature)

This analysis examines the theater of Pedro Salinas, twentieth-century poet and critic, in relation to his lyric prose, novels, and essays. Orringer argues that his plays emerge as a panorama of quests for individual identity amid the deceptive appearances of the world. Active imagination marks Salinas' protagonists, whether they are facing adversity, fighting evil, or pursuing compassion. Surprising coincidences, catalytic agents which speed the action, and a new aesthetic order of reality, which Salinas calls sure chance, distinguish his theater from his other works. With new rigor, relationships are established between Salinas as a dramatic experimenter, and authors such as Cervantes, Calderon, and Unamuno.

About the Author :
The Author: Stephanie L. Orringer has been a visiting assistant professor of Spanish at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, and at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Orringer has also taught at Williams College, North Adams State College, the University of Rhode Island and the University of Connecticut. She earned her M.A. in Hispanic Letters from Brown University as a National Defense Education Act Fellow, and received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Literary Studies after serving as Teaching Fellow.

Review :
This study will be enormously useful to anyone interested in Pedro Salinas as a significant modern poet, as an influential critic, or as a teacher-scholar in the field of Hispanic Studies. Dr. Orringer's work isolates the dominant theme of Salinas' dramas and shows that the theme is equally relevant to his poetry and literary criticism, and therefore central to his creative imagination and view of the world... (Murray Snacks, Brandeis University) Dr. Orringer's book is the most up-to-date and probing treatment of a relatively little known sector - the drama - of the production of a well-known Spanish poet and man of letters. This book is particularly important and useful to Hispanists with an interest in twentieth-century theater and those seeking a more rounded view of Salinas' production... The monograph is comprehensive, and takes a clear-cut view of the thematic unity of Salinas' theater and its intimate thematic connection with the rest of his creative writing. (Alan S. Trueblod, Brown University) Pedro Salinas' Theater of Self-Authentication is one of the very few critical works to deal with all of oSalinas'! plays. The scholarship is sound and thorough. Orringer's approach will not date Salinas' theater and will have a lasting appeal because the theory emerges from the texts and is not conceptually imposed on them from without... (Denah L. Lida, Brandeis University) ...'Pedro Salinas'Theater of Self-Authentication' is well written, intelligent and perceptive. With this monograph, Stephanie Orringer breaks new ground and for this students of twentieth-century Spanish drama and of Salinas must be grateful. (Luis T. Gonzalez-del-Valle, Anales de la literatura espanola contemporanea)