In the Light of Contradiction
Desire in the Poetry of Federico García Lorca

Roberta Ann Quance

Cover of In the Light of Contradiction

Legenda (General Series)

Legenda

12 April 2010  •  196pp

ISBN: 978-1-906540-44-9 (hardback)  •  RRP £80, $110, €95

ISBN: 978-1-315092-76-8 (Taylor & Francis ebook)

ModernSpanishPoetry

In 1926, as a young man of 28 with a growing reputation as an oral poet, Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) toyed with the idea of proving his worth in writing by bringing out a boxed set of three volumes of his verse. Because the Suites, Canciones, and the Poema del cante jondo eventually came out singly (in the case of the Suites, posthumously and with textual problems), readers have not always realised that the poetry in the three collections was interrelated. Lorca had foreseen a poetic ensemble that would have a ‘rarísima unidad’ (very odd unity). What the modern reader sees, independently of Lorca’s view but no less tantalizingly, is poetry which takes up the question of desire in progressively depersonalizing ways, and shows modernism coming into being. Through renunciation, by cutting away the personal and the taboo, Lorca created a poetry that, like no other in Europe, stood between the avant-garde and oral traditions, making their contradictions his truth.

Roberta Ann Quance is Senior Lecturer in Spanish at Queen's University, Belfast.

Reviews:

  • ‘Never dull, Quance has the ability to provoke thought, to make us look anew at material that invites reinterpretation.’ — C. Brian Morris, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 89.2, 2012, 313-15
  • ‘Finely nuanced and very compelling... Given its overall thoroughness, quality, and insight, there are surely good chances that In the Light of Contradiction will refocus a portion of the enormous interest in Lorca’s work to one of its lesser studied corners.’ — Andrew A. Anderson, Revista de Estudios Hispanicos 46.1 (March 2012), 158-60
  • ‘This book sets out to prove [that these three works were part of a poetic cycle] and it does do so, providing on the journey a very enlightening snapshot of Lorca’s frame of mind... Well researched and clearly written... An excellent addition to scholarly studies on Spain’s most important modern poet.’ — Stephen M. Hart, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 89.2 (2012), 213-14
  • ‘We have, for the first time in Lorca studies, an analysis of the three books [Suites, Canciones, and Poema del cante jondo] side by side. Moreover, this is the first time that Poema del cante jondo has been studied in a monograph in conjunction with the Suites... This is a sophisticated monograph yet also an entertaining one. It should compel Hispanists to observe Federico García Lorca’s poetry in a new and exciting perspective.’ — Laura Burgos-Lejonagoitia, Modern Language Review 108.2, April 2013, 654-56 (full text online)

Bibliography entry:

Quance, Roberta Ann, In the Light of Contradiction: Desire in the Poetry of Federico García Lorca (Legenda, 2010)

First footnote reference: 35 Roberta Ann Quance, In the Light of Contradiction: Desire in the Poetry of Federico García Lorca (Legenda, 2010), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Quance, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Quance, Roberta Ann. 2010. In the Light of Contradiction: Desire in the Poetry of Federico García Lorca (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Quance 2010: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Quance 2010: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

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