Federico GArciA LorcA

The House of Bernarda Alba: A Drama of Women in the Villages of Spain

(1936)

Lesson 1

Main Aims:

To prepare you to use Lorca (optional) for your 10-15 min individual oral assessment, we will focus on:•Cultural setting•Thematic focus•Characterization•Techniques and style•Author’s attitude •Interpretation/different perspectives.

Outcomes:

To help you to explain:•The setting of Lorca’s work against another body of material, for example, details on social background or political views (Suggested activity number 4, in your IB Eng Lit Student Guidance Pt 4 booklet).

… was born in 1898, Granada.

… studied philosophy & law.

… was assassinated in 1936.

… was an unmentionable name

in Spain for many years. Some of his work was banned until 1971!

Lorca . . .

Lesson focus: Context

• QUESTIONS:

• Why was Lorca assassinated?• Why was his work burned?• What was the political

situation in 1936?

Political situation – key dates

• Feb 1936 – Right & Centre parties defeated by left-wing Popular Front.– The House of Bernarda Alba completed 19th June

1936– Franco’s military uprising – 18th July 1936– Lorca arrested – 18th August 1936– Taken to olive-groves & shot – reportedly died

‘from war wounds’

Lorca’s political stance?

– ‘A good Chinaman is closer to me than a bad Spaniard’ El Sol, Madrid, 10 June 1936

– Yet during the Franco years (1938-1973) ‘it was customary to consider Lorca as “apolitical”.’ (Ian Gibson, p51)

– On the political spectrum, where would the Popular Front be?

– Lorca was described as a ‘Red intellectual’ and he signed a manifesto supporting the Popular Front.

The Popular Front, Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI, Iberian Anarchist Federation) & Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) anarcho-syndicalist union.

Socialist minister Fernando de los Rios: ‘The Frente Popular is falling apart’ July 1936

• Threat of Civil War– Lorca: ‘I’ll never be political. I’m a revolutionary,

because all true poets are revolutionary’.

– Lorca is advised to flee Spain, but he returns to Granada from Madrid on 14 July 1936.

– Lorca arrested 16 July 1936 and executed ‘at some point in time between the evening of 16 August & the early hours of the morning of 19 August’ 1936 (Gibson, p151).

Who ordered the assassination?

• Jose Guzman Valdes - Civil Governor – He asks his superior, General Queipo de Llano:

‘What am I to do with him? I’ve already had him here for 2 days.’

– Queipo replies: ‘Give him coffee. Plenty of coffee.’ Coffee was ‘the savage General’s favourite euphemism’ (p152).

General Queipo tells the media

• Queipo to Ideal on 21 August 1936

– ‘these scum [Marxists] were determined not to leave anyone alive who excelled in anything [. . .] When will the country recover from the loss of figures as outstanding as Benavente, the Quintero brothers [playwrights] and [painter] Zuloaga?’ This ‘news’ was FAKE! Why did Queipo say this so soon after Lorca was shot?

Valdes was relieved of his post in April 1937

• He was asked what happened to Lorca, just a couple of weeks after the assassination.– ‘Garcia Lorca? We didn’t kill Garcia Lorca! He’s

just disappeared, that’s all!’ – Sunday 30th August 1936 The Republican

newspaper El Diario de Albacete speculates: ‘Has Lorca been assassinated?’ Confirmed 8th September 1936 by a source.

– WHY DID THEY KILL LORCA?

Lorca killed – WHODUNNIT or more importantly, why?

• To crush resistance to the Nationalist Movement?

• Homosexual vendetta?• Reprisal for the ‘death’ of Franco-

supporting dramatist, Jacinto Benavente (1866-1954)?

• A pawn in a violent power struggle?• To avenge Frasquita Alba Sierra (more on her later...)

Federico Garcia Lorca 1898-1936 (formative years)

• Eldest child of a wealthy farmer & a teacher in village of Fuente Vaqueros, Granada.– Boarding school in Almeria, 1908-9 – Private school (free of clerical influence)– Fails exams 1914– Passes exams 1915, University of Granada– Frequents the Café Alameda, which was visited by

HG Wells, Rudyard Kipling etc

Literary Output

• 1917 – begins writing (theme = conflict between sexual desire & Catholic morality)

• 1918 - Publishes Impressions & Landscapes, a travelogue (bankrolled by father)

• Moves to Madrid & writes The Butterfly’s Evil Spell, a play. It premieres in 1920. Closes after just 4 performances.

Literary Highlights:

• Book of Poems, 1921• The Tragicomedy of Don Cristobal & Senorita

Rosita, 1922. A play for puppets.• Writes several short plays, including Buster

Keaton’s Spin, in 1925.• 1927 - Premiere of Mariana Pineda (written

in 1924) to great critical acclaim.

Literary Lowlights:

• Gypsy Ballads is published to great critical acclaim, but his influential friends, Salvador Dali & (filmmaker) Luis Buñuel are not so keen. Why?– Too traditional– Not sufficiently avant-garde

PAINTING: Dalí and Lorca’s friendship influenced each other’s art. look at this picture that Dalí painted in 1927. Two faces. The one underneath is Lorca, the one with the sad eyes, Dalí. Their lips touch. The name of the painting? The Kiss.

Influences:

– Symbolism (eg white walls v black costume)– Puppet-theatre (ie vigorous physical & verbal

action)– Farce– Anti-Naturalism– Cinema– Expressionism– Surrealism

Relevant Lorca experiences:

• Bernarda Alba – based on Dona Bernarda (AKA Frasquita Alba Sierra) – living next door to Lorca’s aunt.– In 1907, she was 50-years-old– Not a widow– Not tyrannical– Had 5 daughters (including Amelia m. ‘Pepico el

de Roma’, Magdalena & Prudencia)

Through Bernarda, Lorca offers a critique of society

• Lorca disapproves of:– Wealth & social superiority– ‘A woman’s place is in the home’– Callous treatment of landless labourers, who had

to work 12 hours a day in the summer for a pittance (men got 2.25 pesetas, women 1-1.25 pesetas in 1930)

– Catholic views on sex

It’s worth noting that . . .

• The Penal Code of 1870 allowed a husband to ‘cleanse his honour with blood’ if his wife were found committing adultery or if his wife or daughter were raped.

• This law existed until 1963!

Bear in mind . . .

• This is a translation. Some aspects of the original cannot be preserved.

• It may feel ‘watered down’– Syntax & rhythm suffer– Idioms don’t always transpose– Eg ‘a lizard between her breasts’– Or ‘a lizard down her dress’

Themes to look for in Lorca’s work

• Themes– Love & Passion– Death & Passing Time– Frustration– Honour & Reputation– Sterility v Fertility & Vitality– Persecution– Enclosure & Imprisonment v Freedom– Religion & Tradition– Position of Women