Max Aub, a Body in Transit in a Lost Time: Reflections and Thoughts on Exile in His Works

The onset of the totalitarian regime in Spain, which erased a large part of the literary past, had two important repercussions on the writing work of a whole generation of creators: on the one hand, there was a group of exiled writers, on the other side of the sea, who had the possibility of recovering their memories, continuing to write and publishing their works with the support of the countries where they took refuge; on the other hand, there were the writers who remained in Spain and who felt the continuous pressure of censorship on their shoulders. Max Aub, poet, playwright, novelist, essayist and film scriptwriter, was part of this group that tried to survive in exile and represents two sides of literary Spain: on the one hand, he cultivated a dehumanized and experimental literature; on the other, he created a literature committed to the problems of the times in which he lived. This paper focuses on two of his plays, titled Transito (1947) and La vuelta:1964 (1965). Through these plays, we will try to reveal Aub's intimate thoughts about his position as an exiled writer in the face of the oblivion caused by the time that had passed, as well as the agony, frustration and indignation that he had to live and feel during thirty years of exile.