Other Literary Forms
It may be argued with some justification that Federico García Lorca is best remembered as a poet. Although recognition for his poetry came first, García Lorca did divide his creative energies almost equally between the two genres, concentrating on poetry during the 1920’s and devoting himself more single-mindedly in the 1930’s to the theater. His first collection, Libro de poemas, appeared in 1921, and between 1921 and 1924 García Lorca continued work on Poema del cante jondo (1931; Poem of the Gypsy Seguidilla, 1967), Primeras canciones (1936), and Canciones, 1921-1924 (1927; Songs, 1976)—all of which attest his considerable knowledge of Andalusian folklore and a genuine musical flair. García Lorca’s reputation soared, however, with the publication in 1928 of Romancero gitano, 1924-1927 (The Gypsy Ballads of García Lorca, 1951, 1953), an ambitious attempt at recapturing tradition to express it in a modern idiom. The Gypsy is cast as a contemporary victim, a natural being at odds with an inflexible, repressive society, in powerful and compelling images of frustration, loss, and death. García Lorca’s fusion of personal and universal symbolism was almost too successful; critics disseminated rather too freely the facile “myth of the Gypsy” with García Lorca as its poet. This brought the angry riposte that the Gypsy was only one manifestation of the persecution of minorities; other victims included the black and the homosexual, and both figured prominently in García Lorca’s next collection, Poeta en Nueva York (Poet in New York, 1940, 1955), written in 1929-1930 but published posthumously in 1940. Visiting the United States in 1929, García Lorca had been appalled by what he saw of the New York of the Depression, finding there an anonymous, transient, and brutally violent society with no unifying mythology or collective dream. His denunciations of the alienation, pain, and spiritual desolation inflicted by the ruthless inhumanity of modern technology found expression in nightmarish, surrealistic images of the entrapment and destruction of natural forces. If García Lorca wrote less poetry after Poet in New York, anguish and inner torment characterize the difficult and often obscure metaphors of the poems of Diván del Tamarit, (The Divan at the Tamarit, 1944), posthumously collected and published in 1940. A notable exception is the elegy of 1935, Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter, 1937, 1939), which, classical in form, moves in four parts from shock and horror by way of ritualized lament and tranquil meditation to a philosophical funeral oration. Less important than either his poetry or drama, but often a more explicit source of many recurring themes and images, is García Lorca’s prose, particularly Impresiones y paisajes (1918). The most complete collection of his poetic prose and other more ephemeral writings, such as letters, lectures, and interviews, may be found in Obras completas (1973). Throughout his life, García Lorca displayed remarkable talents for music and drawing, and the piano arrangements of his own and traditional poetry and the sketches which accompany, and sometimes explain, his poems and letters are well worth consulting.
Achievements
In the decades since his death, Federico García Lorca has become something of a cult figure (particularly outside his native country, where the stylized image of Spain found in his poetry and plays has romantic appeal). His work has been widely translated, inspiring writers, composers, choreographers, painters, and filmmakers; critical studies, moreover, abound, and as a result, García Lorca’s name is now probably as familiar as that of Miguel de Cervantes. Much of this fame comes from a personal myth inspired equally by memories of García Lorca’s undeniably charismatic presence and the tragic circumstances of his untimely death. Proper assessment is...
(This entire section contains 458 words.)
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therefore not easy.
At odds with the myth of García Lorca’s quintessential Spanishness is the degree to which his stagecraft, both as dramatist and as director, belongs to broader European cultural currents. His constantly reiterated goal of the renovation of the Spanish theater was a vision entirely harmonious with the technical advances of luminaries such as Edward Gordon Craig, Max Reinhardt, and Konstantin Stanislavsky. Unlike them, he undertook the enterprise at a time when his national theater was sunk in the stagnation of unrelieved superficiality, and his achievement of a modern style is all the more creditable. In collaboration with stage-director Rivas Cherif and actress Margarita Xirgu, García Lorca brought new techniques from Paris to the staging of his own plays. Not content with winning over the theatergoing public of the capital, García Lorca’s five-year stint as codirector with Eduardo Ugarte of the “university theater,” La Barraca, brought the same modern techniques to the Spanish classics performed throughout Spain. His energy, ingenuity, and experience revolutionized theatrical style in the 1930’s, redeeming, albeit only briefly, the national theater from a creaking nineteenth century realism.
As a dramatist, García Lorca promised much; his death cut off a brilliant future. Plays such as The Audience and When Five Years Pass are truly innovative, with elements that foreshadow the experimental theater of Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Eugène Ionesco. Even García Lorca’s dramas firmly rooted in the Spanish context have a universal quality. By baring the human soul, he communicated the many facets of humanity’s contact with the primitive, instinctual forces of the natural work in dynamic dramatic language stripped of all superficiality. The culmination comes in The House of Bernarda Alba, García Lorca’s revival of the idea of tragedy for modern times. What new challenges and experiments he had in mind are, unfortunately, lost forever. Bernarda Alba’s final imposition of silence was all too prophetic. Only since the 1970’s, some forty years after García Lorca’s death, have Spanish dramatists begun to grapple with the many innovations he envisioned so clearly.
Discussion Topics
Show how music serves as metaphor in the poetry of Federico García Lorca.
Examine García Lorca’s thesis that New York in the late 1920’s was an effective symbol of the Western world.
Compare García Lorca’s conception of the ballad with the conception that governed the folk ballads of England and Scotland.
To what extent does Blood Wedding depend on a concept of honor that is difficult for an American audience to understand?
Consider the subject of frustrated love in García Lorca’s plays.
Bibliography
Allen, Rupert C. The Symbolic World of Federico García Lorca. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1972. Allen focuses on García Lorca’s work from the point of view of relationships to modern (particularly Jungian) psychological theory and symbology.
Anderson, Reed. Federico García Lorca. London: Macmillan, 1984. Anderson’s study focuses on García Lorca’s dramatic art. The book has a fine overview of García Lorca’s relationship to Spanish literature in general as well as insightful discussions of the early as well as the mature dramas.
Binding, Paul. Lorca: The Gay Imagination. London: GMP Publishers, 1985. Binding’s is a fine study focusing on García Lorca’s work as it is an outgrowth of the poet’s homosexuality. Binding has a sympathetic sense of the modern temperament, and his readings, particularly of García Lorca’s mature works, are excellent.
Bonaddio, Federico, ed. A Companion to Federico García Lorca. Woodbridge, England: Tamesis, 2007. A critical look at García Lorca’s works, including his poetry, novels, screenplays, music, and drawings. The essays in this collection offer discussions on gender, religion, sexuality, and politics, as well as a study of the critical perceptions of García Lorca.
Campbell, Roy. Lorca: An Appreciation of the Poetry. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1952. Campbell’s study concisely traces the growth of García Lorca’s poetic genius from his early regional works to his final publications. The book is replete with long passages of the poetry (in translation), making it useful to the beginning student of García Lorca’s work.
Cobb, Carl W. Federico García Lorca. New York: Twayne, 1967. Cobb’s is a fine basic chronological study of the poetry and drama containing not only good readings of the poetry and drama but also discussions of biographical and personal matters that influenced García Lorca’s work and career. Of interest, too, is a summary chapter highlighting García Lorca’s influence on other writers.
Cueto, Ronald. Souls in Anguish: Religion and Spirituality in Lorca’s Theatre. Leeds, England: Trinity and All Saints, 1994. A look at the function of religion and spirituality in the plays of García Lorca. Bibliography.
Edwards, Gwynne. Lorca: The Theatre Beneath the Sand. Boston: Marion Boyars, 1980. This is a solid study examining García Lorca’s career as a dramatist. Edwards’ readings of the plays, both major and minor, are not only insightful from a literary viewpoint but also convey a sense of the performance of the dramas; most chapters include details of performance histories.
García Lorca, Francisco. In the Green Morning: Memories of Federico. Translated by Christopher Maurer, with a prologue by Mario Hernández. New York: New Directions, 1986. This book is a beautiful reminiscence by García Lorca’s brother. It covers the brothers’ early life and influences as well as García Lorca’s engagement with the theater and dramatic art.
Gibson, Ian. Federico García Lorca. New York: Pantheon Books, 1989. A monumental biography which goes to the heart of García Lorca’s genius with brilliant prose and telling anecdotes. Meticulously reconstructs the poet’s periods in New York, Havana, and Buenos Aires. Vividly re-creates the café life of Spain in the 1930’s and the artistic talents that were nurtured there. Evokes the landscapes of Granada, Almeria, Cuba, and Argentina celebrated in the poetry.
Johnston, David. Federico García Lorca. Bath, England: Absolute, 1998. Asserts that García Lorca, rather than celebrating, is more concerned with deconstructing the essentials of Spain’s culture of difference. Claims that the poet’s most radical ultimate intention was the deconstruction of a civilization and the redefinition of the individual’s right to be, not through the language of ethics or of the law but in terms of a natural imperative.
Kiosses, James T. The Dynamics of the Imagery in the Theater of Federico García Lorca. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1999. Kiosses examines the symbolism and imagery in the dramatic works of García Lorca. Bibliography and index.
Morris, C. Brian. Son of Andalusia: The Lyrical Landscapes of Federico García Lorca. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 1997. In six chapters and an epilogue, Morris identifies the presence of Andalusian legends, traditions, songs, and beliefs in García Lorca’s life and works.
Newton, Candelas. Understanding Federico García Lorca. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. Newton’s analysis of the life and works of García Lorca contains chapters on his major plays and his lesser-known plays. Bibliography and index.
Smith, Paul Julian. The Theatre of García Lorca: Text, Performance, Psychoanalysis. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. A critical analysis of the works of García Lorca that focuses on his plays, particularly their stage history. Bibliography and index.
Soufas, C. Christopher. Audience and Authority in the Modernist Theater of Federico García Lorca. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996. A systematic study of all García Lorca’s finished plays and provisional sketches presented in chronological order with attention to their effect on the viewing public. Relates Lorca’s work to that of other avant-garde dramatists of the 1920’s and 1930’s.
Stainton, Leslie. Lorca: A Dream of Life. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. Stainton, an American scholar who lived in Spain for several years, writes of García Lorca’s homosexuality, his left-wing political views, and his artistic convictions. Her detailed account is strictly chronological. García Lorca’s work is described but not analyzed.
Wright, Sarah. The Trickster-Function in the Theatre of García Lorca. Rochester, N.Y.: Tamesis, 2000. An examination of the role of the trickster in the dramatic works of García Lorca. Bibliography and index.