WRITING IN TRANSLATION BLOOD WEDDING FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA
WRITING IN TRANSLATION BLOOD WEDDING FEDERICO GARCIA LORCA from. . ”Study Guide by David Richard Jones and Susan Jones”: www. repertorio. org/education/pdfs/lorca. pdf from Cut to the Chase Productions: http: //www. cuttothechaseproductions. co. uk/education
Federico Garcia Lorca
ANDALUSIA Its capital and largest city is Seville (Spanish: Sevilla). The region is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and Almería. The name Andalusia traces back to the Arabic language Al-Andalus. As well as Muslim or "Moorish" influences, the region's history and culture have been influenced by the earlier Iberians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Roman Empire, Vandals, Visigoths, all of whom preceded the Muslims
The Life of Federico Garcia Lorca • born 1888 in Fuente Vaqueros a smalll farming town outside Granada, the urban centre of Andalucia • Granada: “formed me and made me what I am: a poet from birth and unable to help it. ” • from his earliest years his interests were artistic
Andalusian Coat of Arms The Andalusian coat of arms shows the figure of Hercules and two lions between the two pillars of Hercules that tradition situates on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar. An inscription below, superimposed on an image of the flag of Andalusia reads Andalucía por sí, para España y la Humanidad ("Andalusia by herself, for Spain and Humanity"). Over the two columns is a semicircular arch in the colors of the flag of Andalusia, with the Latin words Dominator Hercules Fundator superimposed.
Flamenco culture is native to Andalucia Andalusia has been the birthplace of many great artists, such as the classic painters Velázquez, Murillo, and Juan de Valdés Leal; the sculptors Juan Martínez Montañés and Alonso Cano; and such modern painters as Daniel Vázquez Díaz and Pablo Picasso (pictured)
GRANADA Granada is located just at the point where the Sierra Nevada mountains meet the fertile plain of the vega. Behind it are steep mountains and in front there is flat agricultural land. The province of Granada offers the mildest weather in Europe, natural beauty spots, and magnificent beaches of the Costa Tropical and a variety of tropical plants. The province is located in the eastern part of Andalusia in the south of the Iberian peninsula, bounded to the north by Jaen, Albacete and Murcia, to the east by Almeria, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and by the Malaga Province which it also borders to the west, in addition to Cordoba.
Federico Garcia Lorca as a boy; The Lorca summer residence, now a museum
• He grew up in comfortable and pleasant circumstances, cultivating his tastes and talents for music (piano) and writing. • By 1909 his family had moved to Granada, and by 1914 Lorca was enrolled in the University of Granada studying the liberal arts and law. • He published a first book of collected articles and essays in 1918.
• “My earliest memories of childhood have a flavor of earth. . . shepherds, meadows, sky, solitude. ” • “Being from Granada gives me a sympathetic understanding of those who are persecuted - of the gypsy, the negro, the Jew, of the Moor which all Granadinos carry inside them. ”
Lorca’s homes in Fuente Vaqueros and Granada – Huerta de San Vicente
“Green wind. Green branches. The ship out on the sea and the horse on the mountain. With the shadow at the waist she dreams on her balcony, green flesh, green hair, with eyes of cold silver. ” "Romance Sonámbulo" ("Ballad of the Sleepwalker)" Alhambra, Granada, Spain
• Lorca’s short life was busy and full. He wrote a great deal, he was feted and admired, and he travelled extensively (for example, to the United States, Cuba, and South America). • While Lorca’s public life is well documented, biographers are less certain about precise details concerning Lorca’s private life. • The reason for this is that Lorca was gay, and the frank disclosure of such a fact during his time would have substantially endangered his career and social position.
“I want and must have my privacy. If I fear stupid fame it is precisely for that reason. The famous man knows the bitterness of having his heart coldly exposed by the dark lanterns that others shine at it. ”
• In 1919, Lorca moved to the Residence of University Students in Madrid • In Madrid, Lorca became acquainted with and established close, lifelong associations with Salvador Dali, the surrealist artist, and Manuel de Falla, the orchestral composer, future film director, Luis Bunuel • He began his literary career most notably as a poet - in 1921 published Book of Poems
• He was also involved in a theatrical group of which he was the director. It was in the late 1920 s that Lorca began to concentrate on drama. • His famous trilogy of rural plays, of which Blood Wedding is one, was written between 19331936 • This trilogy includes Yerma and The House of Bernardo, Alba • He lectures on ‘deep song’ (flamenco song)
• Spanish Theatre has an important centuries old tradition of puppet-theatre and farce • 1922: Lorca’s first play the Butterflies Evil Spell is a puppet play • reveals clear influences of Symbolism and Lorca’s characteristic themes of passion and frustration • Followed by - The Tragicomedy of Don Cristobel and Senorita Rosita
• Spain entered the twentieth century as a constitutional monarchy. • The Spanish populace, had little faith in this regime - the country was hampered by persistent and grave economic instability. Widely opposed forces vied for contention. • Where industrialisation had taken place, workers determined to ensure their proper treatment and compensation and to enhance their social status. They were eager to see a left -wing, socialist government take the reins of Spain. These groups were forward-looking in cultural terms.
• “The theatre is one of the most expressive and useful instruments for the edification of a country; it is also the barometer which marks its greatness or its descent. A theatre which is sensitive and well oriented in all its branches, from tragedy to vaudeville, can in a few years change the sensibility of the people; and a theatre which has been destroyed, in which cloven hooves take the place of wings, can put to sleep an entire nation. ”
• This society was still imbued with classist notions, therefore unable to accommodate a new working and middle class made up of former peasants who would no longer tolerate the old class hierarchy. • This old hierarchy heavily favoured the aristocracy and educated classes. • These new social groups were anti-monarchical and secular in view. and educational force.
• “I am totally Spanish and it would be impossible for me to live outside my geographical boundaries; but I hate whatever is Spanish just for the sake of being Spanish and nothing else. I am a brother to all men and I detest anyone who sacrifices himself for an abstract nationalist idea only because he loves his country with a blindfold on his eyes. A good Chinese is closer to me than a bad Spaniard. I sing of Spain and feel Spain in the marrow of my bones, but above all I am a citizen of the world and brother to all. ”
• To the opposing groups of Spaniards, these forces of change represented a drastic and fearful break from centuries of tradition, whether in social, cultural, or political terms. • These other groups wished to maintain a traditional class structure: kings and queens, and the Catholic Church as a centrally shaping social and educational force • Lorca was on the side of change. His relations with the left-wing government voted into power in 1931 were cordial. Its Minister of Education, Fernando de los Rios, funded theatre project of which Lorca was artistic director
• “A people that does not aid and encourage its theatre is moribund if not dead; theatre which does not gather to itself the best of society and of history, the drama of its people and the genuine color of its landscape and its spirit, with laughter or with tears, does not deserve to call itself theatre, but is rather a place for that horrible thing which is called killing time. ” killing time.
Lorca’s legacy to Spain continues
- Slides: 27