In Search of Duende
In Search of Duende
Lorca on Spanish Soul
This chapter discusses Federico García Lorca's concept of soul—what he called duende. As the muse of Lorca's imagination, duende transported his poetry and music to great heights and simultaneously agitated and menaced the powers of his age. Shaped and created in a similar likeness to “soul,” duende is a Spanish translation of the creative grace that transfigures suffering into some of the finest achievements in music, poetry, religion, and the arts. To Lorca's fascist critics, duende was the stuff of heresy, a kind of disease and deviation from the canonical values of society that if not checked could lead to full-blown plague. Critics of this sort sought to sanitize or sterilize Lorca's pen of all such rebellious instincts.
Keywords: Federico García Lorca, Spanish soul, duende, creative grace, Spanish Civil War, Spain, fascism
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