Analysis of Lorca’s Dawn in New York

Posted on Sep 22, 2024 in Latin

The Aurora

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The so-called Generation of ’27 emerged in the Spanish cultural scene around 1927, with the tribute given to the poet Luis de Góngora at the Ateneo de Sevilla, which was attended by most of those who are usually considered members. Currently, all members of the Generation of ’27 have passed away.

The date of 1927, the tercentenary of the death of Góngora, has served to name a remarkable group of Spanish poets, some of them also eminent professors. Disciples of Juan Ramón Jiménez, with whom they eventually engaged in open conflict, they built upon the pure poetry championed by their teacher, incorporating some of the experiences of the avant-garde movements (Ultraism, Futurism, Cubism, Creationism) and venturing into Surrealism and poetry of political propaganda and social development.

Many authors characterize this generation: Vicente Aleixandre, Rafael Alberti, Miguel Hernández, Dámaso Alonso, among others.

Developed simultaneously: an interesting lyrical populism and the assimilation of the influence of classical and baroque authors like Góngora, Lope, and Quevedo. They are undoubtedly one of the most open, versatile, and creative lyrical generations of all time.

The work belongs to the Generation of ’27, more specifically, to the avant-garde, and within it, to the Surrealist movement.

Regarding Spanish and Latin American avant-garde movements, the European movements that have had the greatest impact are Surrealism, Expressionism, and to a lesser extent, Futurism and Dadaism.

Characteristic of Spanish literature in the 1920s is its openness to the outside world through the European avant-garde.

Surrealism

Surrealism is a literary and artistic movement that emerged in France in the early 1920s, around André Breton.

The movement sought to explore sources of psychological (dreams, sexuality) and social repression. They used techniques like dream transcription, automatic writing, and the creation of new and visionary metaphorical processes. Language was also renewed from a lexical and semantic point of view, allowing for a new rhetoric enriched with new expressive procedures.

About the Author: Federico García Lorca

The author of the work is Federico García Lorca, born in Fuente Vaqueros (Granada) in 1898. He studied philosophy and literature, as well as law.

In 1919, he settled at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, where he befriended the young artists of his time: Alberti, Dalí, Buñuel…
In 1929, he traveled to New York and Cuba. Four years later, he was in Buenos Aires as director of the Margarita Xirgu company, featuring his favorite actress.
In 1932, the Ministry of Education commissioned him to direct ‘La Barraca,’ a traveling theater company that brought the works of Spanish classics to the people.

At the beginning of the Civil War, he was executed in Granada by the rebels. García Lorca was, according to the testimony of those who knew him, a person with “duende,” friendly and outgoing, a host of parties and gatherings.

However, his poetry and, above all, his plays reveal the existence of great inner conflicts.

Characteristic Features of His Poetry:

García Lorca’s poetry is a felicitous blend of folk poetry and innovation.
Traditional themes and rhythms coexist with evocative images of a daring avant-garde stamp.
His poems transport us to a world dominated by mysterious atavistic forces, ancestral instincts, ancient grounds of popular and religious roots that take on a mythical projection.
His vision transcends the parochialism of Andalusian customs to turn it into a magical and symbolic setting.
Lorca’s poetic universe, presided over by death lurking at every step, is tragic and violent. Passions are unleashed with individual intensity and are doomed to a tragic fate. Love and sex are presented as a Dionysian impulse that resists containment, a life force that inevitably intersects with death.
Two distinct phases are usually identified in García Lorca’s approach to Surrealism: at first, it is vague, limited to the dreamlike atmosphere of many of his poems. From Poet in New York (1929-1930), the presence of irrational components grows, but the author never loses artistic consciousness; surrealism is his instrument.
He had the virtue of creating a poetic language of his own, mature from its first manifestations.
Both in his poems and plays, recurring images appear that must be interpreted in light of his particular symbolic code: the moon and the color green represent death, which is also associated with metal in its various forms; there is an obsessive presence of sharp objects such as knives, daggers… The bull has a clear tragic and violent meaning, the horse holds erotic connotations…

Literary Genre

The literary genre of the work is lyrical. The characteristics of this genre are:

Very subjective speech
Prevalence of emotional and poetic function
Voice of the “lyric I”
Generally, each lyric text develops a single theme
Accumulation of technical and expressive resources
Usually in verse, although there is lyrical prose

The main features of this genre are present in the text: firstly, it is a subjective discourse, since although no first-person verbal forms are observed, the author is giving an opinion. There is also a predominance of the poetic function; there is an intention to embellish the message, creating poetic figures (e.g., the personification “the dawn moans”). Also, this poem is written in verse, shows an accumulation of technical and expressive resources (visionary metaphors, personification, animalization…), and develops more than one theme; in this case, there are two. Furthermore, the subgenre of this work is free verse, with the first 8 lines being Alexandrine and the following 12 being hendecasyllabic.

Content Analysis

The plot of this work is a visual depiction of dawn in New York and its peculiar inhabitants. In addition, two themes can be attributed to the poem: a critique of the city, its people, and their lifestyle, and/or a critique of civilization as opposed to nature. On the other hand, the work has a classical structure divided into three parts: verses 1 to 8, where a description of dawn in New York is made; the second part, which takes place from verse 9 to 16, where a description of the people of New York is made; and the last part of the structure, which extends from verse 16 to 20, presenting a conclusion.

On the other hand, it is observed how the author’s position is critical of the city of New York, which he criticizes from the position of a first-person narrator.

Regarding the thematic-formal distribution, free verse is used in the first 8 verses, which speak of the morning in New York, while in the next 12 verses, Alexandrine verse is used to refer to its inhabitants and to offer a conclusion.

Analysis of Form

Regarding the form of the poem, the work is organized into four stanzas of five lines each. The first eight lines are free verse, so there is a disparity in length between the verses. These describe the dawn in New York. On the other hand, the last 16 lines are Alexandrine, referring to the inhabitants and the conclusions. Also noteworthy is a break that exists in the 7th verse.

There is also no rhyme between the different lines that make up the work.

As for the morphological analysis, the abundance of nouns and the number of adjectives that are also present stand out. They show a substantial opposition between those related to nature and those created by man.

With respect to syntactic analysis, there are various elements such as parallelism and anaphora (repetition at the beginning, “Dawn in New York”).

We can also see the literary device of personification in the verses: “the dawn moans.”

Text as Communication

In relation to the text considered as communication, the sender is the author of the work, Federico García Lorca. For his part, the receiver is the reader of the work; the code used is 20th-century Spanish, with a visual channel. The message conveyed by this poem is a critique of the entire city of New York as opposed to nature.

Conclusions

This text by Federico García Lorca can be seen as a critique of the great city of New York during his time there. This is done through numerous literary devices, which give a special character to the message. In addition, the city is personified, as if it could have feelings.

The conflict between individual/society and nature/civilization results in a pessimistic, almost terrifying vision of New York, where even dawn arrives shrouded in filth and misery. He offers his vision of the city during his stay there. This allows the reader of the work to imagine illustrations based on it.

Finally, it should be noted that his verses are free, not bound by any rule, which gives the author freedom to write and express himself as he wishes, emphasizing the harsh criticism he addresses.

Critical Assessment

As for the themes of this work, I do not entirely agree with the vision that Federico García Lorca presents, as it is a great city with its advantages and disadvantages. However, I find the critique in which he contrasts civilization with nature to be very coherent. Today, many of the works being carried out require nature to be altered and/or destroyed in an attempt to progress and achieve the status of a great world city like New York. One example is the amount of forest, trees, etc. that have had to be destroyed to make cities even bigger.

Regarding the form of the text, I believe the use of free verse is due to the desire for freedom, for unconstrained expression. He wants to emphasize the way the message is conveyed more than the message itself, adding many literary devices that serve to capture the reader’s attention. As for its comprehension, it is somewhat difficult to understand, causing a certain sense of estrangement.

On the subject of nature, I believe that everyone should act to care for and protect it, as has been discussed. We should all do our part to avoid further deforestation or the destruction of nature reserves, etc., but rather to promote the development of cities without harming nature, as is often done.