Artistic Freedom and Authoritarianism. From Buero Vallejo’s The Sleep of Reason to Mayorga’s Love Letters to Stalin

Abstract

The paper presents a parallel reading of Antonio Buero Vallejo’s The Sleep of Reason and Juan Mayorga’s Love Letters to Stalin. The reason for the comparison arises from the works themselves: both represent, on the one hand, an artist’s reaction (here of Goya and Bulgakov respectively) to authoritarianism (represented by Fernando VII and Stalin) and, on the other hand, how the dominant ideologies suppress those artists who would rebel against the totalitarian system.