Variaciones en la representación de lo público, lo privado y lo íntimo en La casa de Bernarda Alba

Abstract

Since its publication in 1936, the main interpretations of La casa de Bernarda Alba have focused on the prohibition to go out and, as García Montero (1996) states, on the distance that the mother categorically imposes between the family and the village. In fact, it would seem that this perspective minimises the effectiveness of spatial references, the movements of the house and its interplay between the public, the private and the intimate. In this sense, the representations of public and private in the home are more than terms of separation and sharp distinction. Rather, it constitutes a matter of mimetic scenes and spaces that are represented and actualised by the presence of the intimate, that is to say, what is specific to the body and to the subject, that which is hindered and, exceeding Bernarda’s will and vigilance, stalks everything, destabilising the limits of the imposed order.