Comic techniques in Munoz Seca

The comic plays of Munoz Seca have not received the critical acclaim, even the mention they deserve in drama criticism and theater histories. His comedies, originally performed between 1904 and 1936, have been hastily or superficially evaluated, and the merits of his canon have been entirely overlooked. Historical and critical backgrounds help introduce his work and establish a classification of the texts (over two-hundred plays), including especially the genre he invented, the astracan, and the character type he created, the fresco. Unique word-play underlies his typical use of caricature and parody. Comic verbal techniques include dialect, periphrasis, barbarism, and play on words. In general, beneath comic surfaces, lies sharp and consistent criticism of all that is false and pretentious in the Spain of his day.