This study examines the tensions and variations of the surrealist aesthetic in Spain, specifically in the late poetic, dramatic, and graphic works of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. While many intellectuals recognize that the application of surrealist precepts in Spain is problematic on many levels, my research investigates what contemporary art critics have called dissident, ethnographic, or undercover surrealismvariations of surrealism rooted in the theories of the renegade French intellectual Georges Bataille. In the Spanish context, Batailles early writings (which appeared in the dissident surrealist review Documents), including his exposition on formlessness, base matter, putrefaction, and mutilation, offer a de-sublimated reading of surrealism and succinctly capture the emptiness and anguish that are evident in many strands of Spanish poetic expression in the second and third decades of the twentieth century.
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Initially, I focus on the performative nature of Bataillean formlessness [informe] and the manner in which aesthetic, thematic, and structural manifestations of the formless in Lorcas work critique and undermine social, cultural, and artistic conventions. Reading Lorcas surrealist texts (including Poeta en Nueva York, Viaje a la luna, El público, and others) through the Bataillean lens offers an innovative and relevant approach to surrealist variations in Spain which focus on the base and more primal drives that, in addition to the sublimatory goals of Bretonian surrealism, were also evident in the Spanish avant-garde. As such, the reworking of the surreal which I propose rethinks the avant-garde in Spain and reconsiders Lorcas involvement therein. Additionally, my reading of Lorca and Bataille focuses on the ethical implications that are recognized in their interest in poetry and in their use of spaces of informe. In essence, the poetic utterance is treated as a site open to otherness and to the expression of concerns both social and aesthetic.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-09012007-224733 |
| Date | 05 September 2007 |
| Creators | Richter, David Fred |
| Contributors | Christina Karageorgou-Bastea, Cathy L. Jrade, Edward H. Friedman, David C. Wood |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-09012007-224733/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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