Representación verbal del tiempo dramático en las acotaciones de Antonio y Manuel Machado: aplicaciones didácticas

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the construction of verbal temporality in the stage directions of Las adelfas and El hombre que murió en la guerra by the Machado brothers, with particular attention to the conception of time attributable to Antonio. From a semiotic perspective, the analysis begins with the deictic nature of theatrical language in order to examine the role of stage directions as a space for organizing dramatic time and mediating between the stage, reader, and spectator, as well as their potential in educational contexts. The methodology is based on an empirical and quantitative linguistic analysis of verb forms, periphrastic constructions, and temporal markers within the stage directions, considering their semantic values and discursive functioning. The results reveal in the stage directions a deliberate stylistic orientation toward constructing a slow, durative scenic present that partially replaces dramatic action with a temporal concentration. From a dramaturgical and pragmatic perspective, both works present the reader/spectator with a temporality dominated by memory and the persistence of the past within the present, configuring a nocturnal temporality in which past events condition the characters' consciousness and actions while tending to immobilize the present. In conclusion, the stage directions configure a continuous present that unifies past, present, and future—a conception coherent with Antonio Machado's temporal metaphysics and his view of literature as an expression of the emotion of lived time—thereby reinforcing their analytical and pedagogical value in the reading, writing, and interpretation of dramatic texts.