The Unifying Aspects of Cultures

SECTION:

The Autobiography of the Other: powers of literary transference

Cristine Benner (University of South Carolina, Columbia)
Silence Speaks Louder than Words: A sociopolitical message in Garcia Lorca's theater

Silence! Those who break the silence face confinement or even death. Such is the fate of women in Garcia Lorca's theater and, ominously, such is the fate of the author himself, killed by the repressive Franco militia at the onset of the Spanish Civil War just two months after he finished writing The House of Bernarda Alba. Garcia Lorca changed from poet to dramatist because he felt the need to address social issues that were tragically silenced in the Spain of his time. He believed that tragedy was the only genre that could voice the women's traumatic situation. Lorca's trilogy - Blood Wedding, Yerma, The House of Bernarda Alba - challenged the ideological values of his society by documenting the social repression of women in the rural Spain of the 1930's. As the trilogy progresses, the conflict evolves from the passionate revolt of a young woman to the complete desolation of all in the sterile grounds of a morally strict and oppressive society. By being forced to silence their passion, Lorca's women cannot affirm themselves and are devoid of the life force that defines their femininity. Repression and self-affirmation are the two opposing forces in Garcia Lorca's trilogy that irrevocably lead to tragedy. García Lorca adopts a new kind of individual morality as an alternative life style and exposes its ill fate in the Spain of his time. I will discuss the influence of Nietzsche's moral perspectivism and concept of tragedy in García Lorca's rite of passage from poet to playwright. I will hold that Lorca views his characters not as tragic heroines capable of changing their precarious situation by affirming themselves but as tragic women never free from their repressive Spanish society and therefore incapable of any significant change. By silencing his characters, Garcia Lorca gives his women a voice that speaks louder than words.

THE UNIFYING ASPECTS OF CULTURES