Inmanencia mística en la obra de Federico García Lorca

Authors

Patricia A. Fitzpatrick, Florida International University

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Spanish

First Advisor's Name

Florence L. Yudin

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Joan Torres-Pou

Third Advisor's Name

Maria Asuncion Gomez

Date of Defense

3-29-2005

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to analyze the works of Federico Garcia Lorca within the mystic context that dominates their very genesis. The problematic definition of mysticism was explored lest it be confused with traditional mysticism, which implies union with the divine. The historiography of literature speaks of the Mystic Genre, yet it does not address the mystic mode of artistic creation due to its inability to adhere to rational measure. This mode of conception was explored through Lorca’s poetic discourse: ‘Lorquian mysticism’ is the result of the poet’s cultivation of an innate spiritual potential enhanced by external influences and technical mastery.

There is visible influence of Fray Luis of Leon in Lorca’s early Libro de poemas and El maleficio de la mariposa, as well as of Saint John of the Cross in the later Divan del Tamarit, Sonetos de amor and Yerma. However, definitive echoes of poets from theSufi and other Eastern mystic traditions were also illustrated in these late works. A persistent longing to elide the physical condition, the greatest obstacle of the transcendental quest, is the essence of Lorca’s poetic voice.

The object of this analysis was Lorca’s language, which reaches levels removed from conventional thought. His dazzling metaphors and his particular use of symbols and of paradox compare equitably with those of great mystic poets. Like them, Lorca was faced with the same limitations of language to describe an ineffable experience; he embraced what Octavio Paz describes as ‘sacred language’: there is a linguistic frugality as well as an ambiguity in Lorca’s poetic art that result from his realization of super- cognitive states. Yet such an interpretation is rejected by the rationalist approach, invoking the age-old debate between faith and reason and signaling the application of psychoanalytical theory. This limited approach was disputed on the basis of reader- response theory. Lorca was truly an eclectic and a modification of the conventional reader’s preestablished horizon of expectations is essential in order to seal the gaps in his late works. This innovative perspective placed Lorca within the framework of a new mysticism in the modem world.

Identifier

FI15101407

Recommended Citation

Fitzpatrick, Patricia A., "Inmanencia mística en la obra de Federico García Lorca" (2005). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3335.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3335