In Search of Duende

Resumen del libro

Prose selections edited and translated by Christopher Maurer
Poems translated from the Spanish by Norman di Giovanni, Edwin Honig, Langston Hughes, Lysander Kemp, W. S. Merwin, Stephen Spender, J. L. Gili and Christopher Maurer

An excellent compilation of Lorca's poetry and prose, emphasizing Lorca's notion of the duende, the earth spirit of irrationality and death.

The notion of duende became a cornerstone of Federico García Lorca's poetics over the course of his career. In his lecture Play and Theory of the Duende, he says, there are no maps nor disciplines to help us find the duende. We only know that he burns the blood like a poultice of broken glass, that he exhausts, that he rejects all the sweet geometry we have learned... The duende is portrayed by Lorca as a demonic earth spirit embodying irrationality, earthiness, and a heightened awareness of death. In Search of Duende gathers Lorca's writings about the duende and about three art forms most susceptible to it: dance, music, and the bullfight. A full bilingual sampling of Lorca's poetry is also included, with special attention to poems arising from traditional Spanish verse forms.

Biografía del autor

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936). Poeta y dramaturgo español, adscrito a la generación del 27. En 1915 comienza a estudiar Filosofía y Letras, así como Derecho, en la Universidad de Granada. En 1919 se traslada a Madrid y se instala en la Residencia de Estudiantes, coincidiendo con numerosos literatos e intelectuales. Allí empieza a florecer su actividad literaria como poeta, que le convertiría en el poeta español más leído de todos los tiempos, según el Instituto Cervantes. Su obra poética se complementa con una rica y exitosa obra teatral que solo se vería truncada por su asesinato en 1936 en manos de las hordas fascistas.