Introduction

Short theater gives a voice to subversive characters who challenge normative definitions of gender and dominant patriarchal structures. One reason why gender violence appears in short theater and not in other kinds of fiction is simply because the everyday relationships of men and women inside the household are of no interest to most literary forms. Portrayals of gender violence in short theater respond to the insecurities experienced by contemporary Spaniards in the face of the changes that the nation was experiencing. Cultures of violence contribute to placing value onto each human being regarding, for example, gender, race, social class, age, religion, etc. Humoral theory also served to explain biological sexual differences and to justify the natural inferiority of women. Scholars who follow a Bakhtinian interpretation of short theater consider that these plays portray an upside-down world, a world that is the reverse of the idealized world of the comedia.