HISTORICAL MEMORY, URBAN LANDSCAPE, AND SALVADOR DALÍ IN LORCA'S "CEMENTERIO JUDÍO".
Federico Garcia Lorca's "Cementerio judío," from Poeta en Nueva York, has attracted critical attention for its interpretational challenges, and for its unique status as the poet's only text in which he extensively explores Jewish history and memory. These commentaries, however, have not established...
| Published in: | Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 21 - 48 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Temple University
2020
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| Summary: | Federico Garcia Lorca's "Cementerio judío," from Poeta en Nueva York, has attracted critical attention for its interpretational challenges, and for its unique status as the poet's only text in which he extensively explores Jewish history and memory. These commentaries, however, have not established a convincing relationship between the two settings described in the poem. The present study provides a close reading of "Cementerio judío," and contends that the protagonist, upon entering the titular cemetery, evokes historical memory, and, ultimately, inscribes his present, urban landscape with characteristics of an imagined scene of exile, a conflation that prompts his suicide by cutting off his hands. Finally, these hands remit the reader to the artistic dialogue that Lorca maintained with Salvador Dali, revolving around putrefaction and St. Sebastian, and, furthermore, may allude to a notable tombstone in the cemetery that the poet visited while in New York City. El poema de Federico García Lorca "Cementerio judío", incluido en Poeta en Nueva York, ha suscitado atención por parte de la crítica por sus dificultades interpretativas y su carácter singular, al tratarse del único texto de Lorca que aborda en detalle los temas de la memoria y la historia judía. La crítica, sin embargo, no ha establecido una relación convincente entre los dos escenarios descritos en el poema. El presente estudio ofrece un análisis textual de "Cementerio judío" y sostiene que el protagonista, al entrar en dicho espacio que da título al poema, evoca la memoria histórica e inscribe en su presente paisaje urbano características de una escena imaginaria de exilio, una conexión que provoca su suicidio al cortarse las manos. Por último, estas manos hacen que el lector se remita al diálogo artístico que Lorca mantuvo con Salvador Dalí en torno a la putrefacción y San Sebastián, además de aludir a una notable lápida en el cementerio que el poeta visitó durante su estancia en la ciudad de Nueva York. |
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