yerma presentation

!erm"A Tragic Poem in Six Scenes

Federico García Lorca

• born 5 June, 1898, in Fuente Vaqueros, Andalusia, Spain

• parents Federico García

Rodríguez and Vicenta

Lorca Romero

• died 18 or 19 August 1936, Granada, Spain

Andalusia

“I love the earth. I feel bound to it with all my emotions. My earliest memories have a flavor of earth . . . shepherds, meadows, sky, solitude.”

Spain

Andalusia

Alicún,Almería

The Cordillera Penibética,Almería

The River Gualhorce,Antequera

Riofrío,Granada

Fuente Vaqueros,Granada

“Fuente Vaqueros

is built over water. Everywhere the irrigation canals sing and the tall poplars grow, where in the summer the wind plays its soft music. At its centre it has a fountain that flows unceasingly and above its rooftops the blue mountains of the Vega look down, but distant

and remote, as if they didn’t want their rocks to reach

this far where all kinds of fruit flower in the plush, rich earth.”

“Poem of the Gypsy Siguiriya”from Poem of the Deep Song

LANDSCAPE

The fieldof olive treesopens and closeslike a fan.Above the grovesthere is a low skyand a dark showerof cold, bright stars.

Reeds and twilight trembleat the edge of the river.The gray air spools.The olive treesare chargedwith cries.A flock of captive birds,their long, long tail feathersfluttering in the gloom.

Cante jondo“Deep Song”

“The Andalusian either cries to the stars or kisses the reddish dust of his roads.”

Cante jondo“Deep Song”

• Saetas: a highly emotional religious sentiment, performed

during holy week

• Soledades: the anguished solitude of the scorned lover

• Soleares: a metaphysical pain or the loss of a lover

• Peteneras: the painful resignation of man toward his sufferings in life

• Polos, bulerías and alegrías: the pains and sorrows of daily

existence

• Fandangos, malagueñas and cartageneras: the attractions of melancholy, as well as the roguishness and picardía of the

Andalusian character

Cante jondo“Deep Song”

• “The ‘cante jondo’ approaches the rhythm of the birds and the natural music of the black poplar and the waves; it is simple in oldness and style. It is also a rare example of primitive song, the oldest of all Europe, where the ruins of history, the lyrical fragment eaten by the sand, appear live like the first morning of its life.”

La pena negra“Black Pain”

“for black pain springs

from the lands of olive trees,

under the rustling leaves.”

La pena negra“Black Pain”

It is simply “incurable pain, the black pain we cannot get rid of except by taking a knife and opening a deep buttonhole in our left side.”

“The pain of Soledad Montoya is the root of the Andalusian people. It is not anguish, because in this pain one can smile, nor does it blind, for it never produces weeping. It is a longing without object, a keen love of nothing, with the certainty that death (the eternal care of Andalusia) is breathing behind the door.”

The romería at Moclín

“Hear us.”

The romería at Moclín

• Takes place every 5th of October

• Couples without children join the pilgrimage to visit the canvas of the Fallen Christ

The romería at Moclín

• Its roots in pagan custom are mitigated by the Church’s insistence on its own religious content

• The dance in Yerma is based on an Asturian dance with Bacchic origins

– in this rendition the man carries a horn and the woman wears a crown of flowers

“Dance”(In the Garden of the Petenera)

from Poem of the Deep Song

At night, in the garden,six gypsiesin white dressesare dancing.

At night, in the garden,crowned with paper rosesand sprigs of jasmine.

At night, in the garden,their pearl-colored teethinscribe the scorched shadow.

And at night, in the garden,their shadows lengthenuntil, purple-colored,they reach the sky.

“!erm" is a tragedy. A tragedy based on honour.”

Honor

Honor

• Reputation– a system of

appearances as the highest ideal

– the consequence of external standards invented by society at large

– potentially hypocritical

• Private Virtue– a virtuous life is the

immanent ideal regulating conduct

– adjustment to the external conditions of society is secondary

– scorn of fame can lead to a life of heroic virtue