Mito, historia y testimonio: Tragedia de la perra vida (1960), de María de la O Lejárraga

ABSTRACT Here we study Tragedia de la perra vida, a play which María de la O Lejárraga wrote in 1954, during her exile in Buenos Aires (Argentina), where she arrived in her old age and where she deve-loped several strategies in order to survive financially: mainly translations and collaborations in the press and in Radio Nacional. In our analysis of the play, which was published, along with other works, in the volume Fiesta en el Olimpo y otras diversiones menos olímpicas (1960), we investigate its testimonial value as it is based on a mythological and symbolic background and has an universal dimension. In the work, the author draws on the biography of her contemporary Spanish and European citizens, whose lives took place under shared circumstances, with special focus on the war. While writing her generational story, Lejárraga pays attention to certain key issues in her career not only as a playwright but also as a feminist and socialist activist: childhood as a critical period in identity formation, her opposition to social and gender inequalities, changes in women’ roles during the 20s and 30s.