Spanish poet Garcia Lorca: biography, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The famous Spaniard Federico Garcia Lorca in the art of the twentieth century has long been one of the most significant figures. His legacy went beyond national culture and determined the main ways of developing artistic creativity not only in literature, but also in painting, music, theater and cinematography. Lorca's poems have been translated into many languages of the world.

From the biography of the poet

Federico Garcia Lorca was born on June 5, 1898 in the small town of Fuente Vaqueros, the municipal center of the province of Granada. There the poet's childhood and youth passed. The bright and versatile talents of the young man were noticed very early, which allowed young Federico to actively participate in the life of the provincial art community.

At the University of Granada, Garcia Lorca studied several courses at once - jurisprudence, philosophy and literature. At the age of nineteen, the Spanish poet published his first collection of poems, Impressions and Landscapes. This book was noted by metropolitan critics and brought him fame outside his native province.

In the capital

After moving to Madrid in 1919, Federico Garcia Lorca finds himself in the company of people, many of whom would later be called classics of the art of the twentieth century. The most famous among them are Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel. Lorca's poems turned out to be known and in demand in the Spanish capital, which ensured his creative collaboration with the Eslava Theater. At the suggestion of the director of this group, Martinez Sierra, he writes the play "Witchcraft and Butterflies", which was successfully staged in 1920.

The poet is trying to combine the stormy bohemian life with studying at the capital's university. Among his students, he was listed until 1928. All this time the poet has been working hard in different genres. His poetry collections are published in the capital's publishing houses. The works of the young poet are read with interest by the most diverse public, discussed and quoted in the press.

Avant-garde artist

For the Western European art world, the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century were an era of great change. Many traditional forms that had been established for centuries were subjected to revolutionary rethinking and destruction. Along with his associates and associates, Federico Garcia Lorca found himself at the very center of this process. His biography is inextricably linked with the history of the artistic avant-garde. It is impossible not to note the mutual influence that the creators of the new art had on each other.

The works of the titans of the twentieth century - Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, Pablo Picasso, Federico Garcia Lorca - would look different if these artists worked separately from each other. Characteristically, in addition to poetry and drama inThe creative heritage of the Spanish poet also includes works of painting and graphics.

Gypsy Romanceros

One of his most striking collections of poetry Garcia Lorca dedicated to the world of gypsy romance. In the traditional culture of the southern provinces of Spain, the gypsy component has always occupied a worthy place. But in the poems of Garcia Lorca, the characteristic images of the gypsy world were able to sparkle with new colors.

The freshness and unusualness of the poetry collection "Gypsy Romanceros" published in 1928 lies in the fact that the poet managed to convey the usual figurative mythology of gypsy folklore with the expressive means of the artistic avant-garde of the early twentieth century.

In New York

The desire to move across the ocean to one degree or another is experienced by many people of creative professions. A significant part of the European intellectual elite found itself on the other side of the Atlantic in anticipation of the impending catastrophe of the world war. But Federico Garcia Lorca went to America long before the tracks of tanks rumbled along the roads of Europe. For the poet, this visit was an attempt to break through to new creative horizons. It is difficult to say how far his plans were destined to come true, but in New York the poet works hard and publishes new books.

In less than two years of American work, Garcia Lorca wrote the plays "The Public" and "When Five Years Pass". And the lyrics of this period made up a poetic book"Poet in New York". But the Spanish poet could not count on a significant success of his work in the English-speaking environment.

Return to Spain

In the early thirties, political turbulence is growing in the Iberian Peninsula. It was with this process that the return of Federico Garcia Lorca from America coincided. But he returned to his homeland as a well-known writer and playwright, whose plays were staged with constant success in many theaters. In 1931, the poet was asked to head the student theater "La Baccarat". Having accepted this offer, Garcia Lorca combines administrative activities with intense literary work. During this period, he wrote two plays that were included in the golden fund of Spanish literature - "The House of Bernard Alba" and "Bloody Wedding". There were many new ideas ahead, which were never destined to come true.

Death of a poet

In the rapidly escalating civil war throughout Spain, Federico Garcia Lorca did not express sympathy for any of the warring parties. Perhaps he thought that by staying above the fray, he could feel safe on both sides of the barricade. But he managed to understand the full depth of his delusion only when it was already impossible to correct anything. Garcia Lorca knew very well that Granada was captured by the Spanish fascists when he went to his native province in August 1936. However, he did not attach any significant importance to this fact.

There is very little reliable information about the last days of the poetinformation. It is only known that he was arrested on August 16, 1936 and shot the next day by the verdict of the governor of Granada, Valdes Guzman. Information about what was blamed on the poet is extremely contradictory. According to some sources, these are several poems with a characteristic expressive surrealistic imagery. Allegedly, they offended the religious and moral feelings of the fascist governor. And other sources claim that the poet was charged with non-traditional sexual orientation.

But today it is impossible to reliably find out not only what the charges against the poet were, but also where the place of his execution and the grave. The body of the poet was not found in 2008 during the opening of the burials of the thirties. And this fact reinforces the existing version that Federico Garcia Lorca was not shot. It is impossible to exclude the possibility that the poet escaped death and then got lost without a trace in the maelstrom of the civil war.