Federico García Lorca: Dramaturgy, Style and Symbolism

Language and Style of Lorquian Theater

Lorca cultivated both prose and verse in his theater. His first two books were written entirely in verse; later, verse was reduced to moments of particular intensity, such as interventions by the choir or the singing of popular songs created to establish a dramatic climate. Prose gained ground as the art of dialogue, growing in vividness, nerve, and intensity. His language functions with a taste for popular perfection, featuring peculiar direction, sayings, proverbs, and a lyrical breath.

In Lorca's theatrical world, reality is perceived through sensory awareness, hence the prominence of personification and metaphor, which is a key procedure in his style. The dominant Lorquian symbols include: the moon, water, blood, the horse, herbs, and metals. Lorca preached a poetic theater that implied the poetization of the expressive vehicle; thus, his dramatic language is heavily loaded with connotations.

Themes of Lorca's Dramaturgy

The central theme is impossible love and the myth of frustrated desire. Frustration is the neuralgic element of the Lorquian universe. Rather than just a topic, it is a basic dramatic situation: the core of the drama is the "Lorquian situation"—a conflictual confrontation between two essential forces: the principle of authority versus the principle of liberty.

Lorca portrays tragic destiny, passions condemned to death and loneliness, or love marked by sterility. This neuralgic conflict is located on a double level:

• Metaphysical level: Forces representing the principle of authority include time, loneliness, sterility, and death.
• Social level: Forces representing the principle of authority include conventions, caste prejudices, and social yokes.

Lorca’s work represents a revitalization of the great tragic myths.

Lorca's Dramatic Trajectory

1. The Beginnings: The first experiences in the 1920s.
2. Avant-garde Drama: The experimental stage in the early 1930s.
3. The Stage of Fullness: From 1932 until his death in 1936.