Salvador Espriu und "Primera història d'Esther: improvisació per a titelles"

Abstract

Salvador Espriu is one of the main authors of the revival of Catalan theater after the civil war of 1936. In a climate of political and linguistic repression, he wrote Primera història d'Esther in a language that seemed doomed to death. He created one of the main linguistic monuments of modern Catalan literary history and a magnificent synthesis of the biblical myth of Esther and the history of Catalonia in Franco's Spain. The article aims to highlight the cultural and linguistic aspects of the work, relating it to Espriu's desire for universalism, and to approach the author's intentions.

As in his poetry, Espriu relates the fate of the Jewish to that of the Catalan people. He uses the double effect of "theater within theater" and lets the action take place on two levels. The first, that of the theater: the present, Sinera, the myth of Sinera, the spectators, the people, the Catalans, Catalan culture. The second, that of theater within theater: the past, Susa, Esther’s myth, the 'observed', the puppets, the Persians and the Jews, Western culture.