History, memory and truth in Juan Mayorga's The Burned Garden

Abstract

The Burned Garden (1996) by Juan Mayorga is a work that is part of the corpus of the theatre of memory, a determining trend of contemporary Spanish drama. The aim of this study is to present some reflections on the drama The Burned Garden, which, according to its author, is his best play, however, has not been staged until today, and thus, unfortunately, could not produce enough resonance yet. The reason for this might be that the drama does not belong to the mainstream of the so-called theatre of memory as it implies that memory can have negative effects, and, at the same time, also suggests that the price of the lack of memory can be very high. The article starts with the analysis of the two protagonists’ behaviour, who represent two generations: Benet is the spokesman for the generation of postmemory, while Garay belongs to the generation of witnesses of the Spanish Civil War. The next focus of the analysis is the examination of dramatic space and time, using Foucault’s theory of heterotopias and heterocronies. Since the structure of the work resembles a puzzle, finally, we would like to draw attention to the dramaturgy of the enigma. In conclusion, we emphasize that the most important message of Mayorga’s play is that the unilateral interpretation of the past is dangerous: neither intentional forgetfulness nor forced memory can solve the problem since both strategies can distort the past and impede the critical approach to truth.