Repetition and Difference in Antonio Buero Vallejo’s Las trampas del azar

Abstract

The work carried out on Antonio Buero Vallejo’s dramatic production (Project No. 593, CIUNSa) has made it possible to corroborate the presence of certain recurrent isotopies: fate, truth, human responsibility for one’s actions, physical defects as essential limitations, and the tension between active and contemplative characters. The appearance of the playwright’s last known text, Las trampas del azar, seems to mark a return to the realist aesthetics that he had abandoned after his first text, Historia de una escalera. Indeed, in both works there is a chronological thread linking the intersecting history of two generations.

We will attempt to carry out a semiotic reading that accounts for the meaning of generational isotopic repetition in Las trampas del azar, as well as its relationship with the notions of fate and chance. At the same time, we will examine the connections these terms establish with the universe of meaning of Buero Vallejo’s dramatic production in order to determine whether or not they modify the construct of tragedy previously developed by the author.