Research the Symbolist movement in literature. Which elements of Lorca's play suggest symbolist influences?
Metaphors, similes, and symbols are words in a literary work which refer to other things. Using Blood Wedding as your sample text, demonstrate the difference between these three literary devices. How, for example, does a symbol function substantially differently than metaphors and similes?
Compare and contrast the role of the chorus in a Greek tragedy you have read and in Blood Wedding.
Explore the role of setting in Lorca's play.
Examine the rise of fascism in the 1930s in Europe. How do historians account for the popularity of leaders such as Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco? What were these leaders' governing political convictions?
Research the international battalions of the Spanish Civil War, especially the Abraham Lincoln brigade from the United States.
Research the drama project, Labarraca, of which Lorca was artistic director. What were the aims of the project?
If you enjoyed this ....?
Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter and Other Poems (1962). A short volume of selected poems, translated and introduced by A.L. Lloyd.
The House ofBemarda Alba (1936) is the final play of Lorca's so-called "rural trilogy"; it was completed in the last year of his life. It was first staged in 1945, in Buenos Aires. Bernarda Alba is a stern matriarch whose household stifles the lives and desires of her children.
Antigone (late 440s B.C.E.), by the Greek dramatist Sophocles, concerns the tragedy of Antigone who acts against royal decree in order to fulfill funeral rites for her brother. She is condemned to death for her actions.
Romeo and Juliet (1595) is William Shakespeare' s most enduring play of love and passion. The lovers of the drama's title meet their deaths in an attempt to escape the nets of a family feud, which would otherwise keep them apart.
A Street Car Named Desire (1947), by the U.S. playwright Tennessee Williams, is a drama of elemental passions in which a vibrant couple is set against the febrile decline of an unstable heroine.
Further Reading
Eisenberg, Daniel, "A Chronology of Lorca's Visit to New York and Cuba," in The Kentucky Romance Quarterly, 24 (1975): 233-50.
An excellent accompaniment for the student studying Lorca's Poet in New York poetry collection.
Gerould, Daniel, Doubles, Dreamers, and Demons: An International Collection of Symbolist Drama, Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1985.
A collection of symbolist plays for the student wishing to examine the forms and types of symbolist drama. This collection includes an introduction by Gerould.
Gibson, Ian, The Assassination of Federico Garcia Lorca, Penguin Books, 1983.
An exploration of the circumstances leading up to and surrounding Lorca's political murder, by a writer who has published extensively on the author (Gibson has written a well-known biography on Lorca).
Jackson, Gabriel, The Spanish Republic and the Civil War 1931-1939, Princeton University Press, 1966.
A history of the turbulent 1930s in Spain.
Stainton, Leslie, Lorca: A Dream of Life, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. (The most recent biography of Lorca to be published in English).
Barnstone, Willis, Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet, Southern Illinois University, 1993.
Duran, Manuel, "Introduction," in Lorca: A Collection of Critical Essays, Prentice Hall, Inc., 1962.
Edwards, Gwynne, Dramatists in Perspective: Spanish Theater in the Twentieth Century, St. Martin's Press, 1985.
Lorca: The Theater Beneath the Sand, Marion Books, 1980.
Garcia Lorca, Federico, Bodas de sangre, "Introduccion" de Fernando Lazaro Carreter, Edition Coleccion Austral, 1971.
Blood Wedding, translated by Langston Hughes and W.S. Merwin, Theatre Communications Group, 1994.
Garcia Lorca, Francisco, In the Green Morning: Memories of Federico, translated by Christopher Maurer, New Directions, 1986.
Morris, Cyril Brian, ed., Cuando yo me muera: Essays in Memory of Federico Garcia Lorca, University Press of America, 1988.
Newton, Candelas, Understanding Federico Garcia Lorca, University of South Carolina Press, 1995.
Ramsden, Herbert, Bodas de Sangre, Manchester University Press, 1980.
Senz de la Calzada, Luis, La Barraca, Revista de Occidente, 1976.
Smith, Paul Julian, The Theatre of Garcia Lorca: Text, Performance, Psychoanalysis, Revista de Occidente, 1976.