Friday, April 4, 2014
Kitsch
A lot of the things that bother me in Lorca studies are the same things that bother me in the aesthetic afterlife of Lorca generally: the predominance of kitsch elements. Of course this is very obvious. It hasn't occurred to me until just now to say this out loud. (Well, not really out loud since I am writing not speaking.)
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A lot of the things that bother me in poetry are the same things that bother me in the arts generally: the predominance of kitsch elements.
(I hope that doesn't sound snide. It just seems to me that there's no particular reason to think Lorca should be exempt.)
It's not that I would expect there would be an exemption. What I'm saying is that kitsch elements are exaggerated with Lorca, beyond what happens normally with any other / most other poets.
I haven't seriously thought about it before now, but it would really surprise me if that were true. Or maybe I'm just saying I'd be really interested to see you make that case. I would have thought there must be plenty of poets that get a kitschy treatment in the scholarship?
No other poet in Spanish even comes close! It's hard to prove a negative with other poets, but, for instance, the over use of his first name "Federico" is one symptom. Another symptom is in the titles of books like "San Lorca." The sacralization implicit in that.
That over-familiar use of the first name only occurs with him and two other writers, "Ramón," and "Juan Ramón." With Ramón, it was the writer himself who wanted to be known by that, so that doesn't really count.
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