Self

As James Shapiro shows in Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?, the biographical subject to whom Shakespeare's works are attributed seems woefully inadequate under modern (romantic) theories of authorship in which literature is seen to be the expression of a self. There is probably no human "self" adequate to Cordelia, Lear, Hamlet, Ophelia, Prospero, Ariel, Othello, Juliet, and Rosalind. In other words, any authorial subject would be inadequate.

With Lorca, the situation is reversed: we know who wrote Lorca's works, and the biographical self is seen to be wholly adequate for explaining these works. It is not anachronistic to apply modern / romantic notions of literature to Lorca. Almost all Lorca critics see his works as an expression of his self, his ideology, his personality, his experiences. Why not?

The literal-mindedness that makes people hunt for Shakespeare's experience (he writes about Italy, so he must have been to Italy!) does enter in Lorquian criticism. For example, Lorca is not permitted to be the author of fictional works. His plays have to derive from "real life."

Even my graduate students know that biographical explanations are out of bounds, but somehow this is the dominant approach in Lorca studies. There is no question of going back to a pre-modern or early modern notion of authorship, but at least we can have one that has learned the lessons of postmodernism.

Mesa y Velasco

Duende

The duende can be a line of clothing, I suppose.

Huerta de San Vicente

en polvo, en sombra, en nada

Góngora

Fairies de Norteámerica

Fairies de Norteamérica

Lorca had just been in New York. He began to write the poem there.

Pájaros de la Habana

that is his next stop; he finished the poem there

Jotos de México

We are still in the Americas...

Sarasas de Cádiz
Apios de Sevilla

Two cities in Andalusia

Cancos de Madrid

We move up from Seville to Madrid and then to

Flores de Alicante

Eastward to the Mediterranean coast

Adelaidas de Portugal

West again, this time to a country, not a city.

Overall, we have three slang terms from the Americas, four from Spain, and one from Portugal. All but one are from the Spanish / Luso world. Of course, the umbrella term covering them all is "marica."